Little Town of Tower Glen (IC)

[appending_doom]

Tower Glen is approaching winter; the town is bustling with efforts to finish the harvest and pack food for the coming winter. Of course, there are those for whom the harvest is a background concern - things that are necessary but not wholly their concern.

You are largely one of them - neither a farmer nor herder nor anyone else whose primary concern is the harvest.

Which is one reason it comes as a surprise when you wake up one morning to find a letter from Mayor Warth stuck to your door, a summons to his home by noon.

His home is little different from the others in town, offset from the center by several blocks. It is a sturdy place made of wood and with the town's crest (a black tower surrounded by three trees) painted on the door.

[Marlowe]

Kinraysapa Nanay is shrugging on her favourite ornate black greatcoat (Deep Imaskari are terrible fashion victims) when she finds the note; and in spite of herself gives a little sigh. Local administration never seemed to change. If the summons had been for first thing she could have heard what the problem was and then prepare her spells accordingly, but now she's going to have to guess and wait.

Still, she prepares a standard set of spells for the day, hoping that that---freakishly short---person---who also dabbled in wizardry would prepare a Flight spell, and headed downstairs to the inn common room. "Good morning, my hosts! Could I trouble you for some of your finest scorched dead animal flesh?" That was one good thing about the surface. An end to vegetarianism. "Behold! For I have a summons from authority! The unlawful shall tremble at my gaze! Is anyone else present similarly empowered?"


Level 0-Prestidigitation, detect magic, read magic, message
Level 1-Mage armour, L. Orb of Sound, Grease, Ray of Enfeeblement, Colour Spray
level 2-Web, Shadow Spray, Rope Trick, Alter self
Level 3- Dispel Magic, Shadow Binding, Acid Breath.

[Kish]

Elhad shows up at the mayor's house early and knocks on the door.

Rolling for first granted maneuver. 1 is Crusader's Strike, 2 is Vanguard Strike, 3 is Stone Bones, 4 is Leading the Attack, 5 is Charging Minotaur. [roll0]
Rolling for second granted maneuver; whichever was rolled first is taken off the list and everything above it is one number lower.[roll1]
Results: Crusader's Strike and Stone Bones. Noted on character sheet.

Edited: Oops, name is Elhad.

[ColossusCrusher]

Enton arrived at the mayor's house just after Elhan knocked, "Ah, so I was not the only one to be called to speak with the mayor. That's good to know. Enton Nal'rad, at your service," he said, holding out his hand for a shake.

(I'm a spontaneous caster, so I'll just be over here not preparing anything for the day. :smalltongue:)

[Kish]

Elhad shakes hands briskly. "I'm Elhad Turakul. Any idea what this is about?"

[Vrock_Summoner]

"I must have missed when you became a Paladin, but you seem to have gotten quite attached to your high horse," Dyrek joked from a table close to the stairs at the somewhat eccentric Imaskari before deftly pulling a note from her cloak. "Mayor Warthog* sent you a note too?" The small but oddly hearty-looking halfling took another sip of brandy. "Wanna walk together?"

*intentional

[Moonlitdreams]

The dragonborn gnome is dressed sharply in her red-and-gold tunic when she skips up to the mayor's front door, coming straight from the market a minute after Enton and Elhad arrive. She clutches a thick book under one arm, which she had been reading as she walked and now presses closed.

"Greetings and salutations!" she exclaims, her grin practically splitting her face open. "Enton, my man!" She does a little jump and drifts back to the ground next to him. "Elhad! I'm guessing you are here for the mayor, as well? What's up?"

Draconic Knowledge used at the beginning of the day. This would be normal for her.
I'm going to assume she would know your names based on what I said in the OOC about her being absolutely everywhere and knowing a lot of people, but if you have a problem with that, let me know and I'll edit.

[appending_doom]

The door swings open to admit Mayor Warth, a solidly-built male human, dressed in his worn work clothing, dusky skin sweaty from exertion.

He looks at the collected group, frowning thoughtfully. "I'd hoped more than three of you would have shown up."

[Kish]

"What's this about?" Elhad asks, briefly considering and discarding the ideas of pointing out that it's not noon yet or asking how many people were summoned.

[Marlowe]

Kinraysapa looks blank at the Halfling dabbler before understanding dawns--Paladins are unknown in her culture and she's not met any around, but then smiles--"Why Miss, you mock the righeous and the pure! 'Tis naughty! 'Tis naughty and you'll be smitten! Smite Mockery!" She makes to throw a piece of bread at Dyrek, but bites into it instead. Underdarkers don't waste food. "I'm just a little exited at the prospect of gainful employment and action. Things have been a little quiet these last few weeks and I stopped getting impressed by goblins a while ago" She polishes off her breakfast. "What's the betting the others show up at the mayor's place long before noon, and get chivvied into doing household chores?"

[Vrock_Summoner]

Dyrek chuckles a bit at the Smite Mockery joke, then finishes off her brandy, hopping down from the bench. "I totally agree. Things haven't been anywhere near exciting enough around here. I sure hope the others have gotten some household chores done - I won't have to do them, and I can laugh at those who did. Win-win, no? I suppose it's only fitting for wizards to not be bothered with menial labor, after all." She begins walking towards the inn door and prepares for a timeskip to the mayor's door. "Shall we head off, then? Don't want to keep them waiting too long."

[Marlowe]

"We have plenty of time until noon." says Kinray, carefully stacking her breakfast dishes. "And whatever it is will need us more than we need it. Let us take a stroll together in the sun, inspect the town defenses, and see if we can find any interesting herbs we can use as reagents. Also, I must upbraid you unmercifully on your amateur spell selection, but if you like you can do it yourself, as I'm sure you know how it goes by now."

[ColossusCrusher]

"I'd like to ask the same question, honestly," added Enton. Deona's boisterousness was a bit grating at times - mostly when she kept it up for hours on end - but it wasn't the end of the world.

[appending_doom]

"Well, it's not even noon, so I'd like to wait until I'm certain the rest of you aren't showing up." The mayor shrugs. "But take a seat if you don't mind the heat."

He wanders back into his home, and detours into his workroom, where you can hear him hammering on some new work.

[Kish]

Elhad frowns and calls after the mayor's retreating back, "How many people did you call here?"

He strokes his beard contemplatively.

[Marlowe]

Survival check to find interesting stuff;

[roll0]

Also, if the town has any night-watch type-people Kinray will ask around and see if anything fun happened during the night, finally turning up a the Mayor's house not more than twelve and no less than three minutes before noon.

[appending_doom]

"There should be five or six of you coming; I'd well prefer all of you be present on this."

@Marlowe

Nothing "interesting"; when you do stuff like this, I'd prefer you identify what you're looking for.

You do hear a rumor that a child has gone missing in the last day; details are scarce on the ground, however.

[Kish]

Elhad turns back to the other two and comments, probably not loud enough for the departing mayor to hear, "Either he's gathering adventurers or..." He peers quizzically at Enton. "You look human. Are you?"

[Marlowe]

I do not know and cannot know what precisely I'm looking for because the rules for that little minigame are all in your head.

[ColossusCrusher]

Enton squinted at Elhad, "And you look like a Dwarf. Are you?"

(Rude question gets a rude response! Yay! :smallsmile:)

[Marlowe]

Kinray walks into this gathering quite mellow from the sun and trying a violet in her hair for size, regardless of how much purple and burgundy don't really go. "Good day, fellow surface-dwelling sapient bipeds! I trust we're all ready for whatever the world has in store." And then, more quietly. "Rumour is there's a child missing. None of you have any children?"

[Moonlitdreams]

Deona frowns when she does not even get a response to her greetings. When Mayor Warth opens the door. She waves at him instead. "Well I'm here!"

She sits right down and waits, though when Kinray appears, she jumps back up. "Hello, Kinray! How's the scrolling going? Nope, no children here. Though... what race?"

[appending_doom]

Once everyone is assembled, the mayor settles at a desk, folding arms in front of him. "Now, you might have heard some of our farmers complain about some of their stock going missing. I had planned to wait until we had more information before seeing if action needed to be taken, but last night, Melia i'Winthrope went missing. Or, more accurately, her parents haven't seen her since about yesterday noon.

"Given that she's about seven, they're concerned. And me, I'm worried enough that this might be connecting with missing livestock, and that this might enable those efforts to embolden, that I'd like to tap some of my most capable constituents to handle it.

"So what do you say?"

[Marlowe]

Kinray suppresses a frown. Does it matter? But just says; "Did not hear. It was I-heard-from-X-who-got-it-from-Y-during-pillow-talk-who-overheard-it-from-W-in-their-sleep-or-at-least-that's-the-way-V-tells-it sort of storie--" Then the mayor starts speaking. Kinray's eyes widen.

"So, she's already been gone a full day. That's really not very good. We need to speak to the parents post-haste, unless we already know where she was last seen."

[Kish]

"How do you think they might be connected?" Elhad asks, before pausing to add, "Of course I'll help the girl. Now, how do you think they're connected?"

[Moonlitdreams]

Her race matters for finding her, yes. Deona goes quiet for a moment, thoughtful as she listens, then she nods. "Of course I'll help her! Can you tell us anything else about her or her parents; where she's been recently?"

[appending_doom]

"Mrs. Winthrope's one of the town's better seamstresses; they live out past the southeast wall on their farmland. I think they would be the most helpful in sharing details about the disappearance. And as to how they're related: I have no idea. I've just been around long enough to prefer sending roving bands of adventurers out to handle these sorts of things on the off chance they do."

[ColossusCrusher]

"Maybe there's something in the woods out there. Livestock missing says raiders, but kidnapping children might be Fey or something stranger. Or raiders. We'll figure it out though," replied Enton. With any luck it'd just be a group of bandits that had to see the error of their ways instead of something strange like a group of faeries stealing children for whatever purpose they had.

[Vrock_Summoner]

Dyrek sat listening idly, twiddling her thumbs and debating whether to feel excited to be ordered on an adventure or bored about the fact that the child was probably off playing somewhere. The livestock disappearances were concerning, though, and a lot less likely to be an innocent running-off. Dyrek simply nodded, signifying her agreement to go along with the others to help.

[Kish]

"If you know no more, then we should go there immediately."

[Marlowe]

"Indeed. Too much time wasted already." Kinray turns to go, her voice a little sharp. We should have been notified yesterday. Or even sooner. This place isn't large enough to have livestock go missing, much less a child. She sighs. And turns to Dyrek."Divination, I fear, is a discipline in which I am lamentably weak. Do you have anything useful, oh most imprudent and inexplicably micronised dabbler?"

[Moonlitdreams]

Deona stays quiet as the forest is mentioned, unusually somber at the thought. "It could be the woods," she agrees with Enton. "I have to hope it isn't, though. I know well it can get very dangerous out there."

"Let's get going." She has already stood up, hands clasped in front of her as she tries to think of anything that might help.


Knowledge Nature on the forest, especially the western side: [roll0]
Knowledge Local to see if she remembers any rumors of monsters or raiders lately [roll1]
Knowledge Geography if it helps [roll2]

[Kish]

Elhad will head out of town to the southeast and look for a farm, unless someone suggests a better lead quickly.

[Moonlitdreams]

Deona trots after Elhad, speaking to those of the party that follow.

"We're probably looking at some critter or similar over by the swampy area of the forest," she says. "As I recall, the five farmers that have mentioned livestock going missing over the last month all pasture their stock out that way. Strange though, now that I think about it, not one of them reported more than two missing...

It's hard to say what could be in the swamp, at this point. Why, I remember a few decades ago, a green dragon tried to settle there... Hard to say now, though. It could be any manner of weird stuff."

[Marlowe]

"Do the farmers have separate paddocks, or use the land in common?" asked Kinray. "Either way, sounds like whoever is making the animals disappear is showing a certain discrimination."

[Vrock_Summoner]

"Feh! Do I seem like the type for Divinations either? I'm an adventurer! The whole fun is that I usually have no idea where I'm going! The only Divination I know is to learn about magic items! I usually don't get dragged into anything this serious where having prior knowledge matters much..." Dyrek yawned, following after the group atop her riding dog.

"Hmph. That's confusing. The fact that it's making sure to spread out its targets means it's probably not of bestial intelligence, but then its motive gets confusing. There'd be plenty of food for it to hunt if it stayed in the forest, so it's probably not doing this out of survival necessity. However, with the missing girl added in, there is a good chance that it's just trying to cause the members of this town as much grief as it can, assuming a personal agenda. That also brings to mind the question of how nobody's caught it in the act yet, though... I mean, if it did just want to cause grief, it would probably leave as much livestock as it could dead. Perhaps it's incapable of strong direct combat, and instead lures or magically compels the creatures and child to come..." Dyrek caught herself, realizing that she had started to ramble. She sighed and decided she'd shut up now so the people who actually understood detective work could get her to the part where she could do something dangerous.

[Marlowe]

"Something trying to minimize its risk of detection. Something with knowledge of the town. Or at least, who owns which animals." Kinray says, as if to herself. "But the girl--where does that fit in? Something about her? Is she connected at all?"

[appending_doom]

The Winthrope farm all but borders the forest, the eastern edge of it turning into a swampy mess as the forest itself takes in the slow-moving Arakath River. The farm is patrolled by three large sheepdogs that charge toward the group, barking, as they approach.

"Ay, leave em alone." Jordan Winthorpe, a human man dressed in heavy leather, skin roughly the same color, approaches the group. "And who're all of you? We're in no mood to talk business, today."

[Kish]

"If you're the Winthropes, we're here to find your daughter. What do you know about her disappearance?"

[Marlowe]

Kinray flickers her eyes at the short person. That sounded almost like an accusation. She steps forward. "I'm sorry, Mr Winthrope. We know you must be distressed. I am Kinraysapa Nanay, late of Deep Imaskar. We are--as my friend says--deputed to look for your daughter and bring her back if that's at all possible. We'd appreciate any information you could give about her movements yesterday, her habits, and her general description."

[appending_doom]

Mr. Winthrope's gaze flickers over the armor, weapons, and assorted paraphernalia of the group. He nods. "Well, that's a sight better than I expected. You'll want to talk to Wynter; she pays attention to things back here when I'm off the property."

He leads you inside the main house, a low-slung building with enough separate rooms for the elder Winthropes, Melia, and at least another child. It is rough-made place, but sturdy, and quite clearly made with a great deal of attention.

Mrs. Winthrope sits in her kitchen, surrounded by fabric she stares blankly at. There is an angular slope to her pale face, a strange shape to her face that suggests elven ancestry. She is a slender woman, and her posture, hunched in the chair, makes her look even smaller.

When the group enters, she looks up, startled; as her eyes cross the group, she stands quickly, her sewing scattering around her. "What are you - did he - are you here for my daughter? Please, if not, you have to find her!"

[Marlowe]

"We'll certainly do the best of our ability, Mistress," says Kinray, whose grasp on overbright titles isn't the best. "Could you please give us a description of your daughter? As well as her favourite places to be and where she was last seen and--" she looks around the Winthrope family closely. "--how much time between when you realised she was missing and informing somebody?"

[ColossusCrusher]

"Furthermore, do you know of anyone who might want to cause her harm, for whatever reason? We'll need to be able to cover every possibility," asked Enton.

[appending_doom]

"A little over three feet tall; she's a tiny little thing. She was wearing - ah - a red and yellow dress I'd made for her. Her hair's very short - mud brown, like my husband's. Her eyes are green. And...well, we didn't think much of her spending the day outside playing with her fairies, so we didn't notice anything was amiss until sundown. I did, however, see her a little after dinner. I always make sure she gets something to eat at midday." She gave her husband a helpless look. "I wouldn't know anyone around here who'd...it's a horrible thing to do." She looks about ready to start crying.

[Kish]

"Playing with her fairies?" Elhad asks sharply. ""What has she said about these fairies before, and when did she first mention it?"

[Marlowe]

"We do not know if anyone's done anything yet, Mistress", says Kinray. Or do we?

[roll0]

"You have your dinner at midday, I take it? And you saw her a little after then? Could you please tell us where it was you saw her. And, more precisely Mistress, could you tell us when it was that you informed others that she was missing, and who it was you told?"

Kinray tries to ask these questions gently, allowing for time to think things over. "Could you explain what you mean by "Playing with her Fairies?"

[Moonlitdreams]

"I have to agree... Might be an inside job..." she murmurs, trotting along beside Kinray on the way to the farm. "The paddocks are shared... So the one being used now would have all the farmers sharing it. Quite a feat to take no more than two from each, given that."

Upon arriving, Deona was still thinking about the possibilities, so she stays silent until they are inside. Once there, however, she can no longer keep quiet.

"Where does she go to play with these fairies? And has she described them to you?" Deona pipes up, stepping forward.

[appending_doom]

"The fairies? A few months, maybe more? She says they look like little sparks of light when they want to...and she's never said where she goes to play with them. Somewhere quiet, probably. And I told the neighbors when I couldn't find her for supper. They helped look through the town last night, and I suppose the mayor asked you in because he figured she's out there, somewhere." She waved her arms vaguely to the entire outside.

[Kish]

"When they want to? Did she say anything about other forms? If you can think of anything she said about them at any time, tell us." Elhad turns to look at the rest of the party. "Anyone good at tracking? I'm...not awful at it, but I'm not trained in it, either."

[Marlowe]

"I see. Supper would be your evening meal? With your permission; do you have any other children that might be old enough to know something useful? Children oft share things with their siblings they won't with their parents. Especially when "fairies" are involved."

Whatever the answers here, Kinray speaks low to the group when they draw away. "Well, I can get by in the wild; but I can't track. We also don't know where to start tracking. Need to speak to the neighbours." She looks thoughtful. "This "fairies" thing is a good sign. Offers more chance of this being a harmless misadventure--but, what is bothering me--can anybody suggest a good reason why, with apparently a decent section of the town out last night looking, we were not informed until noon today? Warth could have given us the whole story in the notes he sent us this morning, but for reasons of his own decided to wait half the day."

[appending_doom]

"I'm afraid we've only the one child, and she never told me more about the faeries than that they looked like little floating lights."

[Moonlitdreams]

"I can't track, but I can likely tell you information about whatever area of the forest we need to go into," Deona adds. "Does she have any friends nearby who might know anything?"

"The only less harmful reason I can think of is that he wanted to be sure she was gone before bothering known adventuring types," she murmurs when the group draws away. "Of course, that's not exactly harmless because it gave her more time to be away... Much as I'd like to believe she's just off having an adventure, the length of the absence concerns me."

[Marlowe]

"Or she's been taken to ensure her silence, by whoever it is is making off with livestock. Who is somebody who knows and is known by the community or they wouldn't be so neat about their target selection. Or worried about recognition" Kinray says grimly. "I hope I'm wrong about this. I really do. If silence is what you're after then a corpse is much quieter than a little girl." She breaks off and steps back into the house.

"I'm sorry, Mistress. One last question. There's been some farm animals reported missing lately and this might be connected. As your household been missing any stock? "

[appending_doom]

"She hasn't many friends," Mrs. Winthrope replies. "And none of our stock have gone missing. You - you will be able to find her, right?"

[Vrock_Summoner]

"'Many' sounds distinct from 'any,'" Dyrek points out. "Any friends at all could help. Of course..." Dyrek smiles assuringly before continuing. "That's just a matter of making the search more quick and effective, though. Believe in me, we will find your daughter. You're a mother, so I understand that telling you not to worry is pointless... But have faith." Dyrek looks thoughtful for a moment, then looks down at the dog she's sitting on. "Say, this boy here has a pretty good sense of smell. Do you have anything she constantly has on her person that might have, say, strongly kept her smell?"

[Marlowe]

"This family hasn't had it's stock taken". muses Kinray. "Very well. I think the odds of this having a happy ending just went up. However, still need a place to start looking."

[appending_doom]

"I...hadn't done the laundry for the week. I could take you to her bed and see if you can pick anything up?"

[ColossusCrusher]

"With any luck she's just playing with her faeries - assuming they're not the source of her disappearance, of course. We will do our utmost best to find her, ma'am, you have our promise," replied Enton.

[Marlowe]

"By all means let us try seeing what the dog can do." says Kinray, trying to bring things back from platitudes to methods. "We need a concrete lead."

[appending_doom]

Mrs. Winthrope stand and leads the group to a small bedroom holding a tiny bed covered in black sheets. She tugs at the comforter and hands it toward Dyrek. "I - you hear strange things about faeries. If she is with them - they wouldn't hurt her, would they?"

[Vrock_Summoner]

Dyrek hops off of the dog, grabs the comforter, and puts it near the dog's nose. "Memo, Modus," Dyrek says in a commanding voice, and the dog starts intently sniffing the comforter.

"Well," Dyrek says somewhat cheerfully, "I'm not exactly the leading expert on faeries, but from what I've heard, if'n they were playing, it's more likely a prank or genuine fun than an attempt to eat her or anything, else they'd have done it rather than playing with her."

Dyrek lets Modus finish acquiring the child's scent, then climbs back onto its back and rides out of the room, hoping to get going at some time in the realm of soon. Dyrek meant what she said about the fairies probably not being malicious, but even pranks could be dangerous to a small child, and the forest is full of wild animals.

"Hey, everybody, you ready to kick off? My dog can track the girl's scent, but if you want to ask the lady more questions I can go ahead."

[Kish]

"Let's go. The faster we find this girl, the better."

[Moonlitdreams]

"Yes, let's get going. Thank you for your help ma'am, and I'm sure they are just playing," Deona assures the mother. Whether that ends up to be true or not, it's better to not have panic spreading. "Still, we should be off. The faster we do, the faster we can find her, after all."

While she's thinking about it, Deona will spare a thought towards the faeries she knows of that might actually play with a little girl. I believe fey are Knowledge Nature? Also, I've been forgetting that I have Trivial Knowledge, so, the better of these two rolls counts:
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Marlowe]

Kinray has already become quite satisfied that the lady is not exactly a font of precision. And so, nodding a polite farewell, he joins the others as they follow what passes for their lead.

[ColossusCrusher]

"I agree. Let's continue our investigation and see what we can figure out," agreed Enton.

[Vrock_Summoner]

Dyrek leads the group to the forest's edge nearest that particular farmer's house. Assuming nothing interesting happens, she then hops off her dog and commands, "Trail memo!" Dyrek crossed her fingers, hoping the dog would find a scent to follow.

Dog's Survival roll with Scent addition - [roll0]

[Moonlitdreams]

"If actual faeries lured her away, by the way, they were probably pixes, nixies or grigs," Deona says as the party travels. "They are the ones that have inclinations to lure children away, and they can make themselves look like points of light through a combination of invisibility and other magic, perhaps.

Does anyone have cold iron? If they don't listen and give her back... that's our best bet to defeat them."

[Kish]

Elhad shakes his head. "Unfortunately I don't; it costs a fortune to have enchanted. I might have a few surprises for our mysterious kidnapper should it prove unamenable to reason, though--or should the girl have already been harmed."

[ColossusCrusher]

"I might be able to frighten them into submission if it comes to that, but we should see what all of our options are before we decide on a single course of action," added Enton. While he was definitely interested in seeing what effects his fear powers would have on a Fey, he was willing to go without that discovery without any problem whatsoever.

[Marlowe]

Kinray looks doubtful. "If it is the fey; I doubt a little bit of cold iron will solve the problem. Our best solution is no violence at all. We can't be around to defend this girl all her life. And Fey, from all my people can remember, do not give up. No, our best solution is peaceful negotiation." she says firmly. Then; "Probably ending with us doing them a service, usually brutally murdering something that's annoyed them in some way. So there's that to look forward to." still radiating serenity.

[appending_doom]

The dog pauses at the edge of the marshy area, whining. It nudges its head down, sniffing, before heading vaguely south through the swamp. It moves relatively confidently for about ten minutes before it pauses, sniffing at the air again.


[roll0]


At this point, the dog pauses, pointing its head further southeast, and begins moving slightly more confidently, nose held to the ground.

[Kish]

Elhad stays close behind the dog. As he walks, he gestures and the surrounding shadows gather around him like a cloak.

(Adopting Child of Shadow stance; anyone who should happen to attack us while we're traveling will be able to normally perceive where Elhad is, but will have difficulty targeting him, such that he has concealment against them.)

[appending_doom]

As you follow the dog's nose, thin fog, making sight beyond 100 feet difficult, settles in. The marsh grows darker and more ominous.

@Marlowe

You see, distantly in the fog, a bobbing light, as a man carrying a lantern.

[Marlowe]

"Hold", says Kinray suddenly. "Light dead ahead. Marsh gas? Tourist with a Lantern? I don't know much about these Fey, but the mother said they make light?" She makes a quick, practiced gesture and the contours of her clothing ripple with light for a moment.

Casting Mage Armour.

"Shall we proceed?"

[Kish]

Elhad hurries forward toward the light.

[Marlowe]

Kinray follows just a little more cautiously.

Move Silently 120+1

[Marlowe]

Move Silently[roll0]

[ColossusCrusher]

Enton followed behind the rest, keeping up the rear. Hopefully this was the lucky break they needed in their investigation.

[Vrock_Summoner]

Dyrek made sure to stay right next to Modus as they venture forward. Smiling around at the scenery growing more and more ominous, she also draws her crossbow while moving. "Right cheerful place this time o' year, eh?" She beams at the party.

[Marlowe]

Kinray abruptly stops short. Or we could be following a Whispy-Willow thing into a sucking bog. Eww. I'm not dressed to die all muddy. Instinctively she touches the flower in her hair--which her baroque dress sense, plus the mist, is making more and more wrong, and quickly makes the gestures of the Message spell.

Everyone hears her voice as a whisper by their ear. "Stop. This could be a Whispy-Willow. A Will-o-the-wisp. A Winnowill. Whatever. Stop before we run into something that sucks. I have a plan."

Pause.

"Well, a part of a plan." She takes her everburning torch and her rope from her haversack, and starts to tie the one to the other. "If somebody could help me with the knots, and someone else can throw it ahead of us; we can reel it in as we go. Give us a better idea of the ground than if we just shamble forward."

[Kish]

Elhad stops abruptly. When Kinray pauses, he opens his mouth but doesn't say anything as she resumes speaking. When she's done, he says, "I'm probably best at throwing of anyone here."

[Moonlitdreams]

Deona skids to a stop as a thought occurs to her, a Message from Kinray appearing right around that time as well. "Kinray's got a point, guys," she says. "The fey we are tracking make light, yeah, but I've heard about how its dangerous to follow just any light in a swamp. This might be something different."

"Speaking of, not that I'm planning on anything, but just in case we get into some trouble we don't want to be in, you'll all want this..." Deona squints around her at the forms of the others and they are momentarily covered by tiny specks of ice and harmless flame before their bodies begin to feel like it is the perfect temperature, neither too hot nor too cold.

Deona uses Endure Exposure on the party members, giving them the benefits of Endure Elements as well as immunity to the effects of her breath weapon.

For sneaking around here [roll0] +4 if the swamp still counts as a wooded area

[Marlowe]

Taking ten for use rope=11.

Kinray hands the torch over to Elhad. "If somebody could come up with a better knot, that'd be nice too." She keeps her hand gripped around the other end of the rope.

[Kish]

"Thank you," Elhad says to Deona. He throws the rope ahead of us.

[roll0]

[ColossusCrusher]

As his colleagues prepared the rope, Enton began charging himself with necromantic energy, prepared to fire off spells at a target if something ambushed them. He blinked for a moment as his internal temperature changed, "Thanks, Deona, I'm really comfortable now."

[Vrock_Summoner]

Dyrek stopped her dog and stood around boredly while everybody was doing their cautious planning rope-torch thing. Personally, Dyrek didn't really get why they didn't want to just keep moving and take whatever was coming head-on, but she humored them by staying still. "Any chance of this getting done in the next year? If whatever we're headed towards is dangerous after all, it's all the more reason to find the girl quickly."

[Kish]

"If she sank in quicksand, she's dead. If she's been kidnapped by the fae and we run into quicksand, she doesn't get rescued." Elhad frowns. "But if you have an alternate means of detecting bogs, feel free. Should have brought a ten foot pole."

[Marlowe]

Kinray raises an eyebrow at the funny short person. The funny, short person that isn't Elhad."Of course, here's an idea. You're small. You're impatient. You don't appear to have any constructive suggestions. You could just take the torch and run on ahead. The rest of us could simple keep hold of the rope and pull you out if you wind up in difficulty. Of course." She gives the mist around a searching look. "Of course that would mean you'd be trusting your life to either your own assessment of the situation, or on my knot-tieing skills.

"I'd be disinclined to bet my life on either."

[Vrock_Summoner]

"Wait, what? Are you throwing the torch because you want to see if the fire gets put out by a bog, or is it just to see ahead? Because if you just need the torch in front of you, I'll gladly take it so we don't have to keep stopping to throw it." Dyrek grins. "I'm joking, partially. I wouldn't know where my dog was leading us anyway. Throw your torch, I guess, unless me flying ahead with it would be more time efficient... Wait, we never really went over what each of us could do in any specifics, did we?" She chuckles a bit.

[Marlowe]

"It's an Everburning torch, funny fellow." says Kinray patiently. "Notice how I took it from my haversack already lit? Well, if you've no great insights, might we continue?"

[appending_doom]

The torch lands some 30 feet away on solidish ground; it rests there without sinking. The light pauses, it seems, about 100 feet away, as if waiting, or catching its breath.

The bog is silent, except for the small band's breathing and shifting

[Kish]

Elhad walks forward, grabs the torch--deliberately holding it by the lighted end to show anyone who happens to be looking that it doesn't actually burn--and then repeats the maneuver, throwing it ahead of us again.

[Marlowe]

Trying to breath as lightly as possible; Kinray follows. Putting her feet exactly where Elhad has put his as precisely as possible.

[ColossusCrusher]

Hmm, the rest of the group seemed afraid of this swamp. That was good - a distrust of the unknown had kept people alive for thousands of years. If he had to admit it, Enton was also a bit unnerved by it. The quiet was palpable and the tension thick. All it would take was for some swamp monster to attack them for all hell to break loose. Enton took strength from this fear and continued onwards, keeping to the single file they had formed.

[Moonlitdreams]

Deona fidgets nervously, a bit unnerved by the light and unsure if going toward it, even with these preparations, is a good idea. Still, she falls into step behind Enton after some consideration, trying to stay low to the ground and step lightly in the places the others have stepped.


If this still counts as a forest area, she gets another +4 to this.
Sneak: [roll0]

[appending_doom]

At Dyrek's urging, the dog takes back to the scent, ignoring the floating light


[roll0]


The trail, almost unsurprisingly, however, seems to be taking you in the general direction of the floating light. With Elhad and the dog working together, you move further through the swamp, avoiding most pitfalls. The light seems to retreat as you approach it, staying about 100 feet away as you move.

[Marlowe]

"You know, if is is one of your overbright whispery-willow things" says Kinray; low, "And it fancies a fight, I'm really not sure if we're terribly well equipped. They're immune to a lot of magic, and damned hard to hit with anything. I can definitely see a scroll of True Strike featuring heavily in my future." She pauses, not wanting to sound too pessimistic. "Then again, there are other things that are elusive and shine in darkness." She gets a brief, sly little smile, then wipes it away with a touch of hand.

[Kish]

"I'm good at hitting things," Elhad mutters, continuing forward with determination.

[Marlowe]

"Not good enough." says Kinray flatly. "And I'm not insulting you. I've seen you fight. Unless you have some trick I haven't seen before, you won't be hitting a Winnowisp any more often than I will. And that's before it turns invisible. However, they're not terribly aggressive. The bog is their favoured weapon. I'd just be very happy to find out precisely what it is".

She hooks a glance at Dyrek. "Short Person; there are certain cantrips that project light that dances at a distance. I cannot use them as they're evocation. You wouldn't happen to have one prepared?"

[Kish]

As long as the dog has no input, Elhad will repeat throwing the torch ahead of himself and walking over to it until something changes.

[ColossusCrusher]

Enton remained silent, thinking. If it was indeed one of these Will-o-Wisps, he might have a hard time as well - they were all mostly spellcasters, after all. Hopefully it wouldn't attack them, but he would have to wait and see.

[appending_doom]

After a few more minutes, the light pauses, not moving even as you approach. As you draw within about 80 feet, the light winks out of existence.

[Kish]

Elhad looks to the dog. "Any sign of her trail, or have we been led away from it?" he asks the dog.

[appending_doom]

The dog whines uncertainly, sniffing at the air, just about the time that the torch reveals to Elhad that the group has made its way onto an peninsula about 100 feet long, no more than 40 feet across. It's not clear how far the water around the peninsula continues, but as Elhad turns to explain the need to retreat, a high, eerie laugh fills the air - in the direction of the only path back to solid ground.


Perception checks, anyone?

[Kish]

"That sounds promising," Elhad says; if he's being ironic no one can tell from his tone or manner. He draws his axe and moves toward the sound.
[roll0]

[Marlowe]

"Wait. Isthmus? Then there should be a way forward. Did somebody mean a peninsular?"

[roll0]

[Vrock_Summoner]

Dyrek shakes her head at Kinray's question and remains silent throughout the voyage, but isn't affected by the atmosphere that was unnerving some of the other party members.

She grinned when they came upon the isthmus, enjoying herself for no explainable reason.

Perception: [roll0]

[ColossusCrusher]

Of course it was a trap. These kinds of things always were. Enton steeled himself against whatever was laughing from the way they came, "Prepare yourselves. I think we are about to be attacked."

[Moonlitdreams]

"Of course we are!" Deona chirps, as she steels herself, looking around. She bounces a vial of Alchemist's Fire in her hand, pulling herself up and peering through the dim light of the swamp. "I was wondering when they would show themselves..."

[roll0]
Also, Knowledge Geography, the better of [roll1] and [roll2] to know if there would be an escape route on the other side like Kinray suggested, if we need it.

[appending_doom]

@Moonlit

You can definitely tell there's something there on the connecting land bridge; you don't think it's that large.


Something rams into Elhad, sparking with electricity that briefly highlights a circle about 1 foot across before the offending creature vanishes again.

Attack

[roll0]; if it hits your flat-footed touch AC, take [roll1] electricity damage.


Everyone

Roll initiative. Until the creature moves, you can identify its square, allowing you to target it with attack, spells, and effects, albeit at a 50% miss chance unless other effects intervene

[Kish]

Remember, I have concealment.
Initiative: [roll0]

Elhad lets out an annoyed grunt as the enemy shocks him.

[Marlowe]

"I hate being right." mutters Kinray.

[roll0]

[Vrock_Summoner]

[roll0]

Dyrek, subconsciously snapping quickly to action, mutters a quick phrase, enhancing Kinray's reaction speed.

Casting Nerveskitter, for a +5 to Kinray's Initiative. Hopefully she has more adequate spells than I for this kind of creature.

Quickly realizing that this being would be quite hard for anyone to hit or avoid being hit by, she scatters some licorice shavings, waves her arms and mutters some arcane words at the rest of the party except herself, increasing the speed of their movements significantly, before moving to hide behind Enton.

Casting Haste on everyone but myself. +1 to to-hit and defense, extra attack at highest BAB, +30 feet to move speeds.

[ColossusCrusher]

1d20+2

Enton looked around briefly, before determine the thing's current location. He began to chant softly, drawing arcane symbols into the air with his hands. This would take a little longer than he liked, but it was the only option he really had right now. With any luck the bats could find and neutralize this problem quickly.

(Casting Summon Swarm, for a swarm of bats, as seen in the Monster Manual/SRD)

[Marlowe]

Kinray moves within 15' of the offending space and fires off a blast of acid.

Using reserve feat: Acidic Splatter. Supernatural Ability. SR: No. Powered by Acid Breath
Attack (touch) +3, +1 for Haste, -4 for shooting into combat(?)=+0:smalleek:
[roll0]
Damage [roll1]
Miss chance (1 equals miss) [roll2]


"Mockery-Person! I can hurt it with my acid, but the problem is hitting it. If you've such a thing as a Glitterdust, now is the time. We get it away from Elhad, I can try webbing it."

[Moonlitdreams]

[roll0]

Deona stops peering into the distance when the creature moves up and attacks. Her eyes snap here and there, trying to locate it again, before giving a quiet "ah" and rushing forward with extra quickness gifted by Dyrek. Once she is within 15 feet of the space she had last seen it, the Dragonborn Gnome leans forward nearly parallel to the ground and breathes out a cloud of sparking gas.

Using the 15 foot cone version of her Dragonfire Adept breath weapon with Slow Breath attached. It is a Supernatural Ability, and rather than dealing damage, it slows those within it for 2 rounds. A Fortitude save, DC 16, reduces this to 1 round. Additionally, it takes a -1 to AC, attack rolls and Reflex saves. I don't believe that an area of effect would be subject to a miss chance.

[Kish]

Elhad moves to flank the shocking creature, the shadows boiling away from him as he does, and fixes it with a fierce glare. He makes a mighty swipe at it with his axe.

Elhad switches from Child of Shadow stance to Iron Guard's Glare stance; the will o' wisp now has -4 to attack rolls against anyone but Elhad, and knows this. Then he uses Leading the Attack: If his strike hits, everyone else in the party has +4 to hit the will o' wisp until Elhad's next turn.

As Elhad raises his axe, a foot-tall fire elemental appears behind the shocking creature. Elhad makes a mighty swipe at his enemy with his axe.
Elhad uses Distracting Ember to summon a Small fire elemental to flank with him. The elemental threatens all squares next to it but will not actually attack anyone (even if an attack of opportunity is triggered) before it disappears at Elhad's next action. Then he uses Leading the Attack: If his strike hits, everyone else in the party has +4 to hit the will o' wisp until Elhad's next turn.

Either way, Elhad makes an attack roll with flanking. (But I still need to know which, Neath, so that I know which stance Elhad is in and whether he's used Distracting Ember.)
Attack: [roll0]
Miss on a 1: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]

[appending_doom]

The acidic spray shoots harmlessly past the attacker and Kinray's colleage. A moment later, a flicker of speed engulfs the party, save Dyrek and the dog.

A distortion in the air spreads from Deona, engulfing the space next to Elhad, certainly catching the attacker in its area, if not necessarily affecting it.


Fort Save: [roll0]


Enton, keeping his distance, begins focusing on the power that will call forth allies to this fight.

Elhad's strike swings past the empty space; this invisibility is going to get annoying quick.

[appending_doom]

There is no responding attack; the creature may see momentary strength in fleeing.


Perception checks to try to track it

[Marlowe]

Kinray whirls to try to locate the creature.

[roll0]

[Kish]

Elhad hefts his axe, looking for his enemy.
[roll0]
DM, should I treat him as in Iron Guard's Glare stance with Distracting Ember unused, or as in Child of Shadow stance with Distracting Ember used?

[Moonlitdreams]

Deona glances around, pulling herself up tall and peering into the murk. [roll0]

[ColossusCrusher]

While still preparing his spell, Enton looked around, seeing if he could locate the creature.

[roll0]

[Vrock_Summoner]

Dyrek tried to track the creature as well, though she knew her eyes probably wouldn't pick up anything her companions hadn't.

[roll0]

[appending_doom]

@Deona

You find the creature has drifted about fifteen feet out above the water, out of reach of weapons, but close enough it can draw in to attack.


@Elhad

Iron Guard's Glare

[Moonlitdreams]

"Over there," Deona says to those near her. "Fifteen feet out, above the water." She takes a deep breath, skips forward to the edge of the water, and spits out a freezing line of crippling cold.

Switching to her racial Dragonborn Breath Weapon, she does [roll0] cold damage, Reflex 16 halves, and entangles the creature to hopefully slow its movement more. [roll1] points of cold damage if it is successfully entangled, each round at the start of my turn for [roll2] rounds.

Entangling Exhalation: When you use your breath weapon, you can choose to enmesh all creatures in its area instead of producing its normal effect. Your breath weapon deals only half its normal damage; however, any creature that takes damage from your breath weapon becomes entangled and takes an extra 1d6 points of damage, of the same energy type as normally dealt by your breath weapon, each round at the start of your turn. This effect lasts for 1d4 rounds. If your breath weapon doesn't deal energy damage, creatures damaged by the initial breath are still entangled but don't take additional damage on later rounds.

[Kish]

If Elhad sees the creature Deona points out, he lunges forward, even as a small ball of living flame appears on the other side of the enemy.

Using Distracting Ember and charging.
Attack: [roll0]
Miss on a 1: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]

[appending_doom]

[roll0]

Although Deona can identify the location of the attacker, it is still invisible, making attacks against it difficult. Elhad's attack goes wide, as the rime of frost briefly illuminates the creature dodging around the worst of Deona's breath.

[Kish]

If Elhad is frustrated by his inability to hit this enemy, it doesn't show on his features or in his movements. Even as the elemental he summoned disappears, he swings his axe in a dizzying pattern and suddenly another axe seems to be next to it. Both axes strike out at the strange creature.
This is Elhad's next action; I'm not under the misapprehension that he can act again next. If he can five-foot to flank with anyone he will, but in light of the disappearance of Ciaran my rolls presume by default that he can't. Using Shadow Blade Technique.
Attack rolls, one real blade and one phantom ice blade: [roll0][roll1] (add 2 to each of these if he's flanking).
Miss on a 1: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]
Bonus damage if I choose lower attack roll: [roll4] cold.

One point of difference, hm. I'll risk choosing the lower roll (so if its AC is 16 or worse it takes 13 damage, 3 of which is cold; if its AC is exactly 17 this was a disastrous decision).

[Marlowe]

Nanay grits her teeth. The only thing that was going to get through to this thing was persistence. She moves in close enough to ensure she has range before firing off another blast of acid.

Attack (shooting into combat):[roll0]
Damage [roll1]
Miss chance (1 = miss) [roll2]

[ColossusCrusher]

Enton finally finished casting, releasing the spell he had built up into a black blur of swarming bats at roughly the spot that Deona had indicated. Hopefully the bats would be able to use their unique abilities to interfere with the creature.

Finishing the Summon Swarm casting for a Bat Swarm five feet from the creature, they should be able to follow it with Blindsense and hit it with their swarm attack.

[appending_doom]

[roll0]

The bats swarm around that invisible point in space; spatters of blood drip into the water as they bite and flutter. The other attacks go wide.

[roll1]

The creature doesn't seem to move in place.

[Kish]

Elhad swings his axe again, charging it with divine energy.

Using Crusader's Strike.
Attack: [roll0]
Miss on a 1: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]
If Elhad hits he heals himself for: [roll3]
New maneuver granted is Vanguard Strike on a 1 or Leading the Attack on a 2: [roll4]

[Marlowe]

"I really, really wish I could come up with something better than this" growls Kinray as she fires off another blast. "But covering Elhad in webbing would not help much"

Attack [roll0]
Damage [roll1]

[appending_doom]

Elhad's blade hits, helping to seal his wounds. Kinray's shot goes wide. The bats continue to swarm the creature, as it struggles against them.

[roll0]
[roll1]

Drops of silvery blood drip from it as its wounds continue to bleed.

[appending_doom]

A shock sparks out from the creature as it suddenly bursts up through the net of bats [roll0] [roll1]; its form is difficult to see, but given its speed, could be visible to one with keen eyes.

[Kish]

Elhad lashes at the creature with a massive strike as it moves.

Using Tactical Strike; if I hit, it takes 2d6 extra damage and anyone else adjacent to it can take an immediate five-foot step without provoking an attack of opportunity.
[roll0]
If miss chance is still applicable, then miss on a 1: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2] + [roll3]
Vanguard Strike is granted; crusader maneuvers will reset next round.

[Marlowe]

Kinray lets loose an Imaskari curse. Something about a disgusting thing doing a disgusting thing with a disgusting thing.

Spot[roll0]

"I suppose I could try webbing it now? When it's somewhere above us? because that doesn't sound like a horrible idea."

[ColossusCrusher]

Enton frowned and commanded the swarm of bats to follow after the creature. He wasn't quite sure what else he could do that wouldn't hinder them as much or more than it.

(Seriously, I'm kinda stuck here. Pretty much all my spells are SR: Yes.)

[appending_doom]

As the thing retreats, the bats converge on its form, drawing blood in a further attack.

[roll0]

[roll1]