Serpent's Skull [Racing to Ruin] (IC)

[lostsole31]

Aron will go with Tor-ber. If there is one thing that is absolutely essential in exploration? Buddy System. Like, going off behind a tree to answer nature's call is one thing, but going off by yourself to hunt, forage, gather firewood, etc. ..... that's asking for the jungle to do what it does best: devour.

Their hunt/ gather will provide five provisions, which is enough to feed the party, and even a little bit extra for the food-greedy Fronaldo. But just as they are returning to the campsite (that Gelik is "taking charge of" by giving people various tasks), they hear the buzzing of flies and smell something awful. Investigating, of course, because .... Pathfinders die by their curiosity .... they find a body. This body, Tor-ber estimates, has been decomposing for several days now, maybe even as much as a week. Scavengers have had their way with the body. It is pretty badly mauled and in significant decomp because of jungle humidity and carrion bugs, but they can make out the livery of a Sargavan guard ..... one of the members of the Sargavan Faction has met a bad end here. Anything of worth on it has been taken, which tells you that this man was killed - or at least looted - by something intelligent, for animals do no such thing.

Aron casts speak with dead since as bad as the corpse is, it still has enough of a mouth and tongue and jaw to speak. It is a particularly disconcerting thing for Tor-ber to witness. She has to cast the spell twice.

1. "What was your name?"

"I was Private First Class Danaus Gisler."

2. "To what unit were you assigned?"

"Sum of All Fears Squad, Sargavan Expeditionary Vanguard."

3. "What killed you?"

"I was swarmed by rabid monkey-men."

4. "Where is Lieutenant Brauer?"

"I lost track of him."

5. "Where is Lalarlia?"

"Missing in Tazion."

6. "Where is Jask Derindi?"

"The coward fled."

And that is the limit of what Aron was able to do with two castings of her creepy spell.

---

Aron and Tor-ber will return to camp with food for everyone for tonight so as not to dig into the dwindling rations, but she will mention the above event, the questions, and the answers. "It seems," she says ruefully, "that the Sargavan Faction came to a bad end. It may sound wrong of me, but if Jask Derindi got away, I am glad, for after Lalarlia, he and I were relatively good friends. Still, we now have to be on guard against 'rabid monkey-men.'"