The Blushing Phlox Home

still @ 1:15 PM

Hanalee

There is a bit of blood on the towel, and there is a bloody paring knife inside. It is also a bit moist & warm, from hot water likely. Perhaps she injured herself preparing the dried leaves?
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Old Graveyard

still @ 2:15 PM

Alric, Bright Feather, Caden, & Karnath (npc: acolyte & weaver)

Caden

Heading left both times you are checking the 5' sq. closest to the Old Graveyard. And find nothing. And you still 'sense' something nearby.

You do hear movement to your right, as though whatever it is is skirting around behind you. But it is hard to place.

You have just Searched one of the eight 5' squares around you. You can deduce that at least five of those eight squares are not relevant. The fifteen by fifteen feet to your right is having activity. You have two rounds: decide your moves and actions.
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Alric & Bright Feather, tell me what you are doing. You are here to investigate a mystery of the night. Something about red eyes, some short to the ground, but one that is human height. Clues can be anywhere.

Karnath is still standing in the Main Trail, mace and shield up, menacing. A miner with a donkey coming down towards town looks alarmed and crosses over to the far side of the Main Trail. She looks intimidated, poor dear.

Caden will head to the right trying to deduce the origin of the noise.

Rolled a 10 in room for any needed checks.

Quote from: Arkansan;815963Caden will head to the right trying to deduce the origin of the noise.

Rolled a 10 in room for any needed checks.

Collision is actually a concern at this point. Both groups have solid stealth, leaving you blind to each other. Let us shift into actual 5e round terminology.

Refresher: you are Stealthed, +1' move cost, and Difficult Terrain, +1' move cost. Your 30' Speed per Round is down to 10'.

I need you to sequence Rd. 1, with its Move & Act (and Free Interact w/ Environment), and then Rd. 2, with its Move & Act (and Free Interact w/ Environment). Remember, you can do it in any order.

Assuming Right for first 5', we'll keep your current facing for ease of communication, are you Moving Up, Mid, or Down? And what about your next 5'? Are you acting (or interacting) in between? I'll use your 10 for your declared action.

I am going into the dice room to move the unknown about.

Alric will move around the area trying to see if the position of the main burial Obelisk seems different. Did everything just grow out of it like they say.

He will use survival to see if anything looks unnatural

and investigation in general while he thinks to see if any clues come to mind

Perception is a 19 + 4 = 23

Survival is 9 + 4 =13

investigation is 6 +0 = 6

Alric sees but does not understand or put to get there

Hanalee folds the bloody blade back under the towel and takes both with her, chasing after Flower.

"Hey--are you okay?" the fighter asks the girl rather forcefully, and shows the girl the stained towel. "I think you need to come clean...your mother may be in denial, but there's no use ignoring the truth!"

"I think...there is something unnatural going on here, Flower. If you're under some sort of influence, you need to fight it..."

(OOC: Does the daughter go by 'Flower' or is that the mother's name for her? I've been referring to her as 'the daughter' or somesuch )

Caden will keep right for the first '5, pausing at some point to try and scan the area for any potential threats. He will carry on that path for the 2nd round he will look for a spot to hide and see if he can wait out the situation and see what he observes.

The Blushing Phlox Home

still @ 1:15 PM

Hanalee

She looks at you, and the items in your hand, with resigned eyes, "Oh, you have forgotten the medicine steam bowl. My father's cough needs the healing steam."

"I see you have found I had an accident in the kitchen. It is nothing, but I would appreciate it if you could bring in the medicine bowl. I am rather tied up applying pressure to the wound."

Her voice is still ethereal and detached. Looking into her eyes and body language, you cannot tell if she is not in control of herself. If there is possession like you experienced, there's no fight from her.

(Haven't named her yet. Didn't expect her to be so important. Daughter will do for now. We'll see if she warrants one in the future.)
-------------------------------

Old Graveyard

still @ 2:15 PM

Alric, Bright Feather, Caden, Karnath (npc: acolyte & weaver)

Alric

Things you already know:
1. animals travel here, lots of hares, including a few small predators like coyote.
2. smaller than usual kobolds have fresher tracks here, likely 'children'?
3. other kobold tracks present, but larger and older. maybe day or so since last.
4. that monument likely goes underground a bit, like for a room. heard of this weird Easterner tradition.

Things you just learned:
1. (Survival) those older kobold tracks are heavier than normal. Strange circular divots next to them, too.
2. (Perception) several S & SE tombstones are more sunken into the earth. (Investigation) gophers? unlikely here, but maybe gophers.
3. (Survival) those young kobold tracks are common here, weirdly so. They go all around, erratic, like chasing things and then running in circles.
4. (Perception) several wildflowers have broken off. plucked? a poppy garland!?
5. (Perception) Livonia's monument has suffered almost no weathering. Most of the other tombstones have. There's a sequence between those tombstones which also don't suffer weathering, but the SE corner is empty in spots which breaks pattern.
(Investigation) maybe there is no pattern. just the way wind and water works.

The acolyte and weaver watch you as you tour around the Old Graveyard, usually a good 30' pace behind, both hands behind their back, silent, bright eyes and smiling. Pause when you pause, move when you move. Unnerving.

Bright Feather is left in the center with the monument, likely solving the puzzle. Karnath is still ready for battle on the Main Trail, the uncommon traveller giving her a very wide berth. She seems like she's had quite enough of unknown things.
-----------------------------------------

Old Graveyard, down mountain border rough

still @ 2:15 PM

(I am also glad I rolled out movement ahead of time. Serendipity awaits.)

Caden

You were 10' from the rough's edge to the graveyard. Moving 5' directly to your right, through the thick mesh of dry tree branches and brush, you find nothing and then stop to Search in a (undefined, hence random) direction. Nothing. You don't use the rest of that round's movement, still listening for clues.

Next round you continue right 5'. Now 15' going into 20' inside of the 25' width rough...

Oh shit! Furry scaled children! Three of them! They look as Surprised as you! They flinch, and one grabs another instinctively calling out, "Ennee! (cry of shock, surprise, 'oh no!')"
------------------------------

Alric (npc: acolyte & weaver)

You all hear a high pitched "Oh no!" come from inside the rough down slope vegetation further North from your SE exploration. If you run parallel to the rough... maybe a round or two?

Bright Feather

As you study the monument, you hear a garbled high pitched cry behind you, towards the Old Graveyard edge down slope. Alric and the two Shoshone people are close to that edge, but off center from the origin. You are good distance aways.

Karnath

You faintly hear a higher pitched cry from somewhere in the Old Graveyard direction. Déjà vu? Mind tricks? Bright Feather is distant, but looks like her head is turned.

Alric will give the two Followers a hard stare (as if to say stay here) then scramble toward the sound. He is moving cautious (ie not running) but not slow.

He seemed to understand the language so feels he can help.

(If you took Common, you understand Human Shoshone and its dialects. The parentheses translation next to it is there to help. Those are just words thrown in for setting flavor -- hope you enjoy them. I'll emphasize when it is in a different language, like writing "in Easterner," or "in Elven Paiute," or "unintelligible.")

(Oops! I intended for Hana to bring the bowl as well--)

Retrieving the steam bowl, Hanalee presents it to Father, and then sees what she can do about Daughter's wound.

"I know it's been a hard time--but your life isn't over yet. You need to be strong..."

(Hana will wait to hear Daughter's response. As there's not much more Hanalee can do from an investigation standpoint, I think it's high-time she reconvene with the others on their expedition. Not letting this go, however--something's amiss in the Blushing Phlox home, and Hanalee intends to discover it!)

... Unexpected territory, but let's roll with it. Hanalee, roll me a Persuasion (CHA) skill check.

I don't think rolz.org is working anymore, even the "old stable" version

Hanalee's Perception/Charisma roll
1d20=9

Weird, I'm able to log onto it now on the tablet, but it didn't work on the laptop. I also used a search engine for the laptop and directly typed in rolz.org in the tablet, but I don't know if that has to do with anything. Regardless, I inputted your roll into the Livonia's Lament room, so it is now "officially logged as part of your permanent record." :nono:

Blushing Phlox Home

still @ 1:15 PM (because even if we move slow, the characters are not )

The daughter straightens up and looks at you, Hanalee, incredulously, like someone threw cold water upon her. You sense her staring at you a good while even as you place the medicine bowl under her father's chair. Standing back up you see her stare at you lost, as if you spoke utter madness, like a delay between the sounds you made and the meaning of your words.

"Sweet child be proper to our guest. Fetch a sitting hide for your friend here so I may read her marriage fortune." The mother herself looks a little concerned at her daughter's exposed confusion.

The daughter then sinks back into a resigned compliant state and shuffles off. She moves like her body goes through the motions but her spirit delays from total depression. Possession? Maybe, but doubtful, for then who is taking advantage of whom?

The father starts to cough up some phlem.

Caden gives a shout of surprise as well. As soon as he recovers his wits he will attempt to take as non threatening a posture as possible and make some sort of communication.

Caden

"Grackto!" the one with poppies tucked behind its ears points at the fur & bone bundle you are holding. It is obviously scared and shrinking away, but also attempting to reach out towards the bundle. It is rather comically ineffective.

One of the others, the largest of them and with a canine tooth necklace, tries to hold onto and shuffle back the one with flowers in its ears, intervening between. The other, the smallest, drops to its knees and gnaws on a leg bone tied to a thong around its neck, tugging at its ear with the other claw. It never takes its big, scared eyes off you as it purrs? while gnawing.

The largest of them, with the tooth necklace brandishes a big, pointy bone and jabs it in front missing easily as it never gets closer, intermittently barking, "Krrr—gra! Cha'! Cha'! Krrrr—gra!"