Completed Play-by-Post: In Search of the Sorcerer

[nikolokolus]

Spoiler

I think I may have done a piss poor job of explaining something, so I'll try to clarify here. The fire on the ground floor appears to have raged throughout the entryway, consuming whatever was flammable or combustible. The stone walls and ceiling are all blackened down there with a heavy layer of soot. The second floor was spared of flame, but it's likely that the smoke from the conflagration rose and eventually settled on higher floors . . . nothing on the second floor looks "unnatural" or different from what you might expect if a fire gutted a lower floor, but couldn't spread beyond the confines its stone walls and ceiling.

Cormac recognizes the blood red robes of the Chief Priest of Arawn, his mentor and master Padraigh.

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

"It looks like we found my master." Cormac searches his body for any clues, and also for anything of value.

 

[Siveon]

"Well, at least you're handling it well, cousin." Marcán looks under the bed, helping Cormac with his search.

 

[Grimgravy]

OOC

Are there any sign of the ticks movement?

"You might want the check the for body for what killed him. I'm curious to know how the ticks survived in here."
While they search the guest quarters, Rhenmyr does a more thorough search of the dining area. He gives the whole area a once over with the mirror.

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

"Marcán, he is at the side of Arawn now. Death is a process that claims us all. Now that I know he is gone, I will have to complete the mission. I wonder if he had any other information on him that he could not share with the group?" Cormac in addition for searching for items of value, looks for a sign of how he was killed.

 

[nikolokolus]

Rhenmyr proceeds carefully out of the guest room and heads back into the dining hall with his mirror in one hand and his torch held aloft in the other looking carefully for anything that might be out of place or amiss. Nothing in the mirror's reflection seems particularly odd, bu you do notice two sets of tracks in the fine dark ash - thin, little scuffs several feet apart that look like they might have belonged to the two ticks you fought downstairs. As you continue to follow the tracks back and forth across the room you notice they originate toward the shut door at the center of the tower. Strangely as they get closer to the door they seem to narrow and diminish, tapering to a point about a foot away from the door where they utterly disappear.

Meanwhile Cormac stoops over his dead master's corpse and examines it carefully; trained as you are in the ways of death and the preparation of corpses for burial you notice that the body looks withered and shriveled and hasn't suffered the kind of putrefaction and rot you'd expect from a corpse six months dead. Further examination reveals a tear in his robe at about chest height. Pulling the robe aside reveals a slightly raised bump with a deep blood-stained hole about the width of your thumb in the middle of it, but you're fairly certain the wound was inflicted postmortem. A deep furrow in the skin of his throat and a massive amount of bruising suggests he was probably strangled to death. The rest of your search reveals some of Pádraigh's personal effects: a small pouch filled with 40 copper, 12 silver and 4 gold coins. His silver torc of office (the ends of which are stylized death's heads) has been rotated about a half turn around his neck and his fine oak cudgel lies a couple of feet from the edge of the bed.

Marcán lifts the woolen coverlet and peeks under the bed and finds a slipper and small leather bound tome, approximately an inch thick and of a size that can be comfortably held one-handed.

 

[Grimgravy]

"The bugs seem to have appeared out of nowhere. Perhaps they were summoned by a mage still alive further into the tower. Find anything of use?" Rhenmyr asks after following the tracks.

 

[Siveon]

"I found a book under the bed." Marcán grabs the leather bound tome and observes it. "Hey Cormac, do you have any clue what this thing is for?"

 

[Helly]

Spoiler

I think I may have done a piss poor job of explaining something, so I'll try to clarify here. The fire on the ground floor appears to have raged throughout the entryway, consuming whatever was flammable or combustible. The stone walls and ceiling are all blackened down there with a heavy layer of soot. The second floor was spared of flame, but it's likely that the smoke from the conflagration rose and eventually settled on higher floors . . . nothing on the second floor looks "unnatural" or different from what you might expect if a fire gutted a lower floor, but couldn't spread beyond the confines its stone walls and ceiling.

Spoiler

Thanks bro, that's much clearer. What else is in the dead man's room apart from a bed? Ker will search anything that's like a desk or a closet.

Ker looks under the bed's pillow and the rest of the room.
"I really hope those two ticks are the only ones we'll meet today..."

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

"I hope they are the last ticks we see also. I think they might have done this to my former master." Cormac collects up his masters items. "I am not sure, let me look through it?" Cormac then checks the leather bound tome.

 

[Grimgravy]

While they continue searching the guest quarters, Rhenmyr checks on and under the small tables behind the stairs and then the longer table against the far wall. If his search finishes before the Kelts', he rights a chair, sits down, pulls out the Hyperborean sorcerer's box and key and checks them with the mirror.

 

[nikolokolus]

Cormac takes the small book and opens its dusty, soot-covered pages. A quick scan of the first few pages reveal column upon column of Illyrian script - nothing more and nothing less than sequences of random seeming numbers ranging anywhere from several to dozens of characters. in the adjacent columns are strange characters that you've never seen before and struggle to decipher.

Anyone who wants to try, can roll a 5d6 intelligence check to see if they can make heads or tails of it.

Meanwhile, Rhenmyr leaves his comrades in the guests' chambers and searches high and low around the dining area. Your search around the room reveals very little of interest and finally you come to the large dining table against the far wall. You start to move plates of half-eaten food around when you spot something moving on a horribly rotted lamb shank on a platter.

Please roll a d6 (you want 2 or higher)

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

Cormac attempts to decipher the book. [5d6] = 10

 

[Siveon]

When Cormac is done, Marcán takes a second look at the book.
Intelligence Check: [5d6] = 15

 

[Helly]

Ker has a look at it too
Intelligence check [5d6] = 15

 

[Siveon]

OOC

Really, nothing higher than 20? FFS the RNG gods have forsaken us.

 

[nikolokolus]

OOC

Really, nothing higher than 20? FFS the RNG gods have forsaken us.

OOC

Lower is better. You're trying to roll equal to or less than intelligence.

 

[Siveon]

Spoiler

Ah. Woo! I made it, then. Thank ye RNG gods.

 

[Grimgravy]

Lamb Shank Surprise: [1d6] = 1

OOC

Son of a bitch!

 

[Helly]

Spoiler

Did I find anything searching the rest of the bedroom?

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

Spoiler

I made my roll also!

 

[nikolokolus]

Spoiler

Did I find anything searching the rest of the bedroom?

Ker pulls bedding back, lifts pillows and looks under and behind a couple of shelves in the fairly spartan room. Nothing seems particularly out of place nor interesting: You find a pewter candlestick with a half-burned candle, a small linen bundle of plain, polished wooden sticks about a foot long each, a small sack of salt, an old rust-pitted dagger and an odd shiny packet about 3 inches long, 2 inches wide and an inch thick, that seems to be made of a kind of lacquered paper. Inside the packet are 4 thin, white, cylindrical paper tubes stuffed with a dried and pungent herb that is unfamiliar to you.

Spoiler

Ah. Woo! I made it, then. Thank ye RNG gods.

Spoiler

I made my roll also!

Marcán and Cormac stand over the small book and puzzle over the strange symbols, when suddenly it dawns on you that you've seen similar marks and etchings on an old astrolabe that belongs to the village's druid. You don't know exactly what they signify or represent, but you know they have something to do with constellations in the night sky.

Lamb Shank Surprise: [1d6] = 1

OOC

Son of a bitch!

As you move the plates and bits around searching the table, you catch movement out of the corner of your eye. Three wriggling worm-like grubs about an inch long have quickly slithered out of the rotted meat and onto your forearm.
3 grubs attack Rhenmyr [1d20] = 15, [1d20] = 16, [1d20] = 1
and two of them bury their head into bare flesh and burrow under the skin before you can sweep them aside, while the third is crushed under your palm.

 

[Grimgravy]

"Little help guys! More bugs. In my arm!"

OOC

Bloody hell! Are they near the surface so I can cut them out?

 

[Helly]

Once calm comes back, Ker will look at the symbols, trying to remember what the druid taught him.
For now, Ker grabs the sticks, the salt and the packet then rushes to Rhenmyr's help.
"This isn't good." says Ker as he sees wriggling under Rhenmyr's skin. "We have to get them out quicly or it'll be bad."

Spoiler

Does any of us knows about this kind of bugs? Like if they can't stand salt or something?

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

"Quick, hand me a knife or dagger!"

Spoiler

If someone hands me a dagger, I will attempt to use my knowledge of dead bodies and hopefully be able to perform some anti bug surgery.