As the Light Fades IC

[WarDragon]

"Well, if it were easy, they wouldn't have needed us, I suppose," Jorben muses. "Perhaps we could try to speak with the local spirits, to see if any plant or animal witnesses might be of use? Failing that, we could wait until nightfall, and see if whatever took the poor man reappears?"

[Eonn]

"It might be difficult finding an animal who witnessed things, but if you can talk to spirits you might 'ave some luck." Soren says, slowly standing back up. "If that doesn't work, camping out here may help as well."

[Bansheexero]

Aurora begins to emit the same glow she had before when she had asked about petting Luna. The radiance is warm, and portrays what appear to be several shifting constellations fading in and out based on proximity to her.

If you need some light to help you search, I'm your gal. Though I am not skilled enough yet to produce such effects without a physical anchor, I could illuminate a few trees so as not to cause too much focus on you, should you find any nearby hostiles."

[Kvard51]

"Ok, how's this for a plan? I'll lay down exactly where the logger napped, you guys hide in the trees and bushes and watch to see if anyone comes.". Issachar looks around at the group, to see if the think as well of his idea as he does.

[Eonn]

"It may work." Soren says, toying with his heavy sheathed blade, drawing it just an inch or two before clicking it back into place. "The rest of use can set up camp some distance away and wait. Since we have no other leads, this may be our best option."

[zlefin]

Since it sounds like you have a plan and there's no objections, I'll move it along (if people want otherwise we can backtrack):

Spoiler: rolls for my reference

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(1d20)[3]
(1d20)[20]
(1d20)[1]
(1d20)[3]
(1d20)[8]

the party spends the night intently watching, it's a long wait and nothing out of the ordinary happens (I assume you detect magic/etc when even the ordinary stuff happens, so you're quite sure it was ordinary).

trying to add more flavorful description:
Every time a squirrel moves, an owl hoots, or something else normal happens you all watch intently to see if it means more, yet it never does. You wait, and watch, and wait, and watch, but the hours drag on and on, and finally the sun begins to peek over the horizon, and still nothing.

[Eonn]

"Well, it would seems like this was a bust." Soren is the first to speak up as the sun began to peak over the horizon. "But we're here, and we have a full day of daylight. How about we search the area?"

[WarDragon]

"That seems to be our best option at this point," Jorben agrees.

[Eonn]

"Shall we split into teams, or stay as one group?" Soren asks, hoping it would be a question that might make him look like more of a team player.

[Bansheexero]

"Should we split into different directions, or will we patrol up and down, starting at different ends in order to do a more thorough sweep?"

Aurora takes a minute to focus her senses, before joining up with the group in their huddle.

Spoiler: Action

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Aurora activates her Divination, starting on Ultravision, which improves her most basic Perception to grant a +3 bonus and allows making Perception checks as agree action.

***Other senses open if allowed, depending upon the following ruling.

Not sure if it is listed, but I am unsure if I am able to lose only one form of Divination at a time, or if I am able to use multiple simultaneously. Typically if a talent/sphere only allows one version of an ability, then they tend to have talents that allow two versions active at the same time, which the Divination Sphere lacks. I cannot find a ruling on the page, so I suspect all may be usable simultaneously. If so, I could analyze the auras of the other players in the group to see how their alignment compares to my own (Fate alternate divination).

As she maintains her "sight," Aurora's eyes glow and the area within about 5 feet of her is drained of color, which moves with her as she walks.

[Kvard51]

Issachar considers for a moment, "I think we could spread out with our outstretched arms touching just at the tips of our fingers, we could walk down and back a few times and be sure of covering the most area without missing anything."

[WarDragon]

"Stay together," Jorben says firmly. "Whatever took him is still out there, and it may be waiting to catch one of us alone."

[Eonn]

"Er, I more meant to search the forest around here." Soren said to Issacher. Maybe spiraling out to search an area about a mile in radius."

[Kvard51]

"Well that makes a bit of sense. That should allow us to cover more ground. Issachar glances around the group, "Stay sharp. The logger couldn't have disappeared into thin air."

[zlefin]

The party beings its search, in an ever-widening circle. Into the forest, then into the plains nearer the city, and back and forth many times. It is a long slow process; but they remain ever vigilant, always careful to note the details of what they pass by. Many minor things are seen and examined, the usual squirrels and a few other small creatures, the occasional dead tree, various detritus on the floor, and plenty of foliage up above. The plains are simple grasses, with the occasional rabbit.

After several hours, midway through the afternoon, they come upon something ahead. They're in the deeper parts of the woods now, nearly a mile in. There's still plenty of light, the canopy is not so dense as to make it dark. Up ahead, they spy something; as they cautiously approach to get a better look, they can see it is not moving. As they scrutinize more they are able to tell: it is a wolf, or the remains of one at least, with a very gaunt appearance. It lies upon the forest floor. The party is only a hundred feet away; that the wolf shows no sign of response at the party's presence indicates it's very likely to be dead, as the party as a whole is not so silent as to evade a wolf's hearing.

[WarDragon]

"Look there, perhaps it will offer some clues... or maybe we can aid the poor beast if it's not dead."

[Eonn]

Luna whimpers. "Not a good sign, this." Soren says, hand tight on his weapon. He keeps alert as the group approaches the corpse.

Spoiler: OOC

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Perception: (1d20+9)[24]

[Bansheexero]

Aurora steps forward a bit, still keeping a bit of distance between herself and the allegedly dead wolf. With her "sight" she tries to analyze the creature in greater detail.

Spoiler: Perception and Such

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Perception (including Ultravision) (1d20+15)[29]
Spellcraft (to see if and what magical effects may be in play) (1d20+6)[15]

[zlefin]

As they cautiously approach, it becomes quite clear that the wolf is dead. The skin is thin with the rib bones visible under the skin, and it is not breathing. The eyes are gone, and some decay has started.

There is no sign of magic from the remains. The very weak ambient magic of the area is present, as always.

The party is now some 40' away.

[Kvard51]

Issachar walks over to the obviously dead wolf, squats down, and begins studying it for signs of what could have killed it in this manner.

Spoiler: Actions

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Nature: (1d20+8)[17]
Arcana (1d20+8)[15]

[zlefin]

As Issachar gets next to the wolf, something starts to happen:

Spoiler: various rolls

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perceptions
Issachar
(1d20+10)[18]
(1d20+8)[23]

Aurora
(1d20+4)[16]
understanding roll
(1d20+5)[23]


Forester
(1d20-1)[6]


Maccabe
(1d20-7)[-2]
(1d20+7)[19]

results are in next post.

[zlefin]

Issachar and Aurora both hear a soft whimpering, but the sound is more like an echo, and not a regular sound coming from the wolf. They feel a dark presence manifesting. They are each able to recognize that it is some form of haunting; but only Aurora notices quickly enough.

Spoiler: init rolls

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Issachar
(1d20+2)[8]

Aurora
(1d20+2)[13]

Surprise round, Aurora acts now;
the effect happens at init count 10
Then Issachar can act after the effect.
Noone else noticed it so they can't act in surprise round.
Then the surprise round ends.


your chars know some basic info about haunts, for the players themselves to use as a resource:
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/haunts/

I'm pretty sure noone has fear immunity or mind effect immunity, if they do, mention it.

[Bansheexero]

Sensing the haunt, Aurora approaches the location, but stands outside of its reach. As she does, she releases a torrent of positive energy in a centralized emanation, focusing on harming the haunt.

Spoiler

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Aurora uses channel energy (Harm), within range of said haunt. I forget if said haunt gets a Will save for half damage, but if it does, the DC is 16 currently. (2d6)[5]

[zlefin]

Under the torrent of energy from Aurora the miasma dissipates; an image of a deer had started to form in the area as well but it disappears with the miasma.
The party stays on very high alert, but no more troubles are forthcoming.

Those with knowledge of such matters in the party would know that once dissipated, a haunt usually will not reappear for some time; though just how long that is can vary by a great deal.

[WarDragon]

"Well done, Aurora; that could have been very dangerous."

[Eonn]

"It's unnerving that such a thing was lingering here in the first place, however." Soren says. "Now do we take the time to destroy this thing for good, or keep looking for our missing man?"

[Bansheexero]

Aurora responds to Soren, "Given that haunts and ghosts resemble one another so much, they tend to have comparable methods of putting them to rest. I course, if you want to scour for clues and check missing persons and violent death records at the closest settlement, be my guest. No telling how old this haunt is and even if their are records. I am not skilled enough with Divination to draw that info out, nor do I have any desire to subject myself to the raw underbelly of the haunt, so any and all info would have to be manually collected and sorted. Even if you had all the relevant information available, it's take days if not weeks or months to set it to rest. My vote is to simply continue searching for the man we set out here to find."

[WarDragon]

"Let me at least take a brief look at it, before we move on." Jorben steps closer to the wolf's corpse and examines the area where the Haunt manifested.

Spoiler: OOC

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(1d20+7)[19] Attempting a knowledge (religion) check to learn more about the haunt.

[zlefin]

Jorbens analysis of the info so far; as well as Issachar resuming an analysis of the wolf's cause of death yield some info:

The wolf died of starvation. It has a badly injured hind leg. Usually that would mean that it acquired an injury; then was unable to successfully hunt and starved as a result.

Haunts rarely come from animals, but it is possible.
There are no signs of human presence in the recent past or any remains or marks or anything.

Starvation in the wild is not that rare for animals.

The way to eliminate a haunt is generally to figure out what caused its creation and do something that would sate that specific kind of pain or make amends for it.

[Bansheexero]

"If this animal's death was a result of starvation and it is indeed a haunt, my suspicion is to offer up food to its spirit in some way. Perhaps fresh deer or something similar. Anybody have venison or something similar? All I have is some trail mix, though I doubt that would appease the spirit. Again, this is a total guess on my part."

Spoiler

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Aurora rolls Knowledge (Religion) or, if possible, uses aid another (though unsure if that can be used with Knowledge checks)

Knowledge (Religion) roll (1d20+6)[10]

Sadly, Knowledge (Nature) is not currently in my skill set.
Also not sure if Object Reading would be at all viable, but it is moot since I lack that talent.