Well, not exactly luxurious to sleep here, compared to the accommodations of the temple or camping outside, this was practically a palace. Her time to enjoy it seemed short lived at spotting her company. Guards. A somewhat wealthy looking woman... If she had to take an educated guess, she was probably the occupant this place was intended for, or the owner of the property renting it, at least. Most likely, they probably heard of the disturbances and wanted to investigate newly spread rumors of strange sightings and noises. In that case....she wondered what she could do. Her spell tags were useful, and more paper wasn't especially hard to come by, but she still didn't want to use more than she needed. But it wasn't her only tool. She at least had her basic alchemy kit. Maybe she could search for the equipment for a proper lab soon, but for her purposes, she knew what approach she could take. It was mostly a quick rush of simply grounding powder into a bowl and distilling it, pouring it into a bottle into it bubbled....not that it would accomplish quite enough on it's own, but.....with another single spell tag, she got her pen ready. She didn't know how much time she had, but she still steeled herself to remain patient and steady. Perfect clarity was integral to writing inscriptions. All she would need is the tag to create some mist to rise, and then...assuming she mixed this right, it should have an intentionally bad reaction with her elixir that she moved to position underneath some furniture, out of sight, but after she planted the tag, it should create enough force to give the impression of a dangerous spirit. All that was left was....hoping she had enough time, she'd have to go down and simply greet them. She was a priestess after all, and hardly looked like any kind of vagrant they might be expecting, so they might be inclined to listen to her. With all this planned out, she made her way to the door, to open it and greet the group, personally, opening it, but keeping one hand close to the wall with her mist tag ready, but out of sight. She knew what to do. First, the most basic rule that she learned. Just be polite. You could always go far with the proper manners, regardless of the situation. Finally, mentally preparing, she opened it, taking a slight bow and ready to face them. "Yes? Is something the matter?"
"That will be all, thank You for Your hospitality. Let me know If any Problems occur." She replies to The Young Women and Puts The Key in one of her pockets on her belt and heads back to The barracks to See If The Guard Captain has concluded His business.
Arriving at the barracks, Anton grumbled as he realized someone else had the same plan as him. Though he doubts she'd be as experienced as he was, he figured he may as well check out what he'll have to work with. Deciding to look at the current training regimen, and think of ways to improve it while the guard captain was busy.
No one pays him any attention when Ganith comes down the stairs. He finds an empty and relatively clean table and sits down, then waits. Soon one of the waitresses notices him and makes her way over, dodging three different groping attempts as she walks – one of them from another waitress. “What can I get you?” She asks as she stands next to his table. “Church? No, not yet. The lord decided there are more important things to worry about. Though I heard talk that some priestesses will be arriving soon, so that might change.” The old farmer replies as she leads her. “Here is the area of the last incident where people think they saw humanoid shapes moving in the distance.” He then leads her to another place. “The previous time was around here somewhere.” And then to a third. “The incident before that was around here.” He turns to face her. “The guards checked all three, but found nothing. I doubt you will have better luck, miss, but if you want – go ahead and give it a try. I could also show you the older spots, but you are even less likely to find anything there.” Spoiler: Investigation Roll 1d100 = 60 No matter how much she looks around Avella sees nothing out of the ordinary, just dirt, grass, and the occasional bush. No trees anywhere nearby. Yet she can't shake the feeling that something is off, that she is missing something. Finally she gives up and turns to leave... and stops in her tracks as she looks at the ground. Her footsteps can be seen, as can the old man's... but that's all, there are no other footsteps to be seen anywhere. Going back to the previous two locations she finds the same – only hers and the old man's footsteps. Which is odd, because she was told that the guards searched each location, and they have no reason to cover their tracks. There should be at least some evidence of the guards having been there, yet there is none... Raising the females as ghosts is easy. Casting the spell to make Eike seem human takes a while, but with no one to interrupt her it poses no challenge for someone as skilled as her. Soon that too is done. Finally it is time to hear the goblins' story. “We Gar Tribe! We live in peace.” The first ghost begins. “Bandits come, attack village. We escape and flee. Later we go back and find village burned, everyone dead, everything taken. So we leave.” “Bandits ambush us here, we die. The end.” Finishes the second. Then both ghosts look at her, waiting for orders. Ida gets the feeling that even by goblin standards the two were not very smart. “Mine? What that?” They ask together when she asks them if they know anything about an old mine in the area. Yep, not very smart at all.
Lydia can feel Garlan's eyes on her as she bends over. When she turns around after putting her cloak back on his face is expressionless, but the glint in his eyes tells her that he enjoyed the little show. “Very well, I will see you tomorrow to introduce you to your students.” His eyes follow her as she leaves. Finding the River Vixen is easy, though as she asks around she receives a few warnings that it is no place for a pretty girl like her. It's a two-story wooden building right next to the river, and the exterior looks... unimpressive, to put it nicely. Still better than the slums, though. The interior... is not any better. In fact, it somehow manages to be worse than some of the bars in the slums. Ignoring all the grime and smoke – it is nothing she hasn't seen before - she takes a look at the patrons. Most of them are men, but there are some women too. The majority keep to themselves, talking and drinking quietly, though quite a few notice her and check her out, some openly ogling her body. There's also a winged man sitting alone at a table and talking to one of the waitresses. A bald and rather fat man is behind the bar. On closer look Lydia realizes that he appears to be rather muscular too, not just fat. Careful not to step on any of the trash on the floor she approaches the bar. “Welcome to the River Vixen, lass! Looking for a cheap room to spend the night? Then you have come to the right place! Just 1 Gill per night, and you get to sleep in an actual bed! If you would like food along with the bed, that'll cost you extra – 1 Gil per two meals. You can choose any two meals you want, such as two dinners - but most choose dinner and breakfast. If you would like some company for the night, you'll have to negotiate the price with a girl of your choice. If you try to force yourself on any of the girls or to cheat them out of money you owe them, you're on your own – it's not my problem. And if your corpse ends up floating in the river... well, that's too bad, but again, not my problem. You were never here and we never met.” He finishes with a smile and a shrug. His little speech sounds quite well rehearsed, as if he has repeated it numerous times. “Now, would you like a room, lass? And for how long?” The reaction she gets is not the one she expected. The woman and her guards seem quite startled to see her, as if they did not expect anyone to be there. “Oh, h-hello, miss.” The woman greets her hesitantly. Komi realizes that her guess might have been wrong and that their presence has nothing to do with her taking over the empty house. “I'm sorry, I did not mean to disturb you, I was just... taking a night-time walk...” the excuse sounds fake, as if the woman just made it up. Spoiler: Awareness Roll 1d100 = 51 At first glance the woman appears to be just some busty rich lady, possibly even a noblewoman. Yet something feels off. Komi gets the feeling that the lady is trying a little too hard to act like a typical rich noblewoman.
She finds Captain Garlan in a rather good mod. “Ah, Ser Pendragon! Welcome back!” He greets her with a smile. “As I told you earlier, any help to train the new recruits in proper sword combat will be appreciated. Normally I would ask for a demonstration of a candidate's skills, however I have heard about you and your skill with the sword from multiple people I trust, so we can skip that part and not waste any time. Instead let us talk about what your duties will be. We have quite a few recruits that need some sword training, and you get to teach twenty of them, every day for four hours straight, starting right after noon. Before and after the training session you are free to do as you want, just try not to do anything that will make you unable to do your job the next day – though I am sure I did not need to tell you that. If for some reason you won't be able to make it for a particular training session – for example because of an urgent mission – please try and send word so that we will know.” The captain explains. “Of course, you won't be working for free – you will be paid 25 Gil per training session, plus you will be allowed to use the barracks stable for free. In addition you are free to use the training grounds during your free time, if you want. How does that sound?” To Anton's disappointment he is stopped by two armored guards, who politely but firmly inform him that civilians are not allowed to just walk around the barracks and that he would have to wait. Apparently Captain Garlan has already hired one lady to help train some of the guards, and is now in talks with another who is also offering to help train some of the guards. The pair assure him that he won't have to wait long.
Mylea sighs sadly as she sees the body, before moving in to investigate, signalling Jonas and Galza to flank and watch out for ambushes.
She was unusual....but it didn't seem like she was really aware of who or who shouldn't be here yet. Holding off on her plan she silently snuck the spell tag up her sleeve and decided to speak normally. "Do you often take walks onto people's property? If you lost something, I could help you look for it." She didn't quite know what the story with this woman was or the situation, but she chose to be polite. The sooner she had this woman get what she's looking for and leave, it would be better for her own safety as well. Although.... The priestess did her best to give something of an ominous look. "If it's fallen into the river, you might be better off just accepting it's gone. Death flows in that water." She kept her facial muscles straight, looking dead serious. Giving some life to the rumors around the area would eventually help. "In either case, why don't you tell me what exactly it is you're looking for and I can tell you if I've seen it?"
"Is that so?" Anton sighed deciding to wait, Really now, two people? Perhaps the captain is just using that as an excuse to invite some company during work hours. But on the off chance they are taking my job, maybe I should start another school here? The old man pondered while waiting for the captain to become available.
Avella nod to hersellf, knowing that she is one of the first messengers of will Everlight and any other divine beings as well, so she still has a chance to begin. As they walk and investigate she find that strange conclusions, when they find no tracks of last groups here. Which was weird, but it could lead her to where? Elf bend the knee and take some dirt in the hand, trying to sense some dark magic with help of Everlight. "My great Sarenrae, give me wisdom, temptation and patience for finding needed answers to these mistery problems. Help me finding way to protect and showing your Healing Light to everyone here." She speaks pray to Everlight, deeply focused to find any evidence of illusion or dark magic.
Gettin' involved with the Captain'll help if I'm ever found out. All the better if he's any good in bed. Maybe I can find a way to tempt the local Lord or Lady too. Now that would be a fun scandal. ---------- As she enters the dive, she takes in the familiar sights and smells of smoke, garbage, and watered-down beer. Almost feels like home. The bars there at least tried to keep things in order, though. This is shitty for the sake of it. Kind of feels...wrong. She strides to the bar, listening to the tender's spiel. "I'll be seein' a room before I decide anythin'. I'm stayin' in town a while, probably. So, you wanna show me one?"
Ganith examined the barmaid who made her way over to him. She wasn't anything special. No high beauty, elaborate clothing, or fancy makeup. However, there was a sort of rustic appeal to her. She wasn't trying to be the prettiest, or the most appealing. Perhaps even she was trying to hide her looks to avoid all of the groping claws that reached for her on a daily basis. It was a sort of homely sort of beauty. The wheels in the man's mind turned vigorously as he swiftly decided how best to get her into his bed. While he certainly didn't mind being forward and speaking his mind. He had a suspicion that wouldn't work on her. She spent every day and all-day hearing all sorts of lustful comments about the shape of her ass and swatting groping hands. no, he suspected that the best way to make her panties moist for him was for him to treat her normally and politely. It was a sort of odd irony of Ganith's experience that treating common folk with a measure of politeness worked better than on a noble lady. Whereas a lady of nobility may get excited simply from the taboo of a horny man speaking bluntly about her tits. With this in mind, he adjusted his tone accordingly, "I'd like some stew and some wine if it doesn't cost extra...Otherwise some ale is fine." He leveled his gaze at her eyes and resisted the urge to drift his gaze down, or gawk at any of her other womanly features.
The Blonde Knight nodded. "That Sounds Like a good Arrangement, thank You for being so coorporative. Im looking forward to meet Your Men and train them properly." She tilts her head slightly as She looks at him. "Something im curious about: Are there any Troublemakers in Your Garrison? I Like to know in advance so I know who im dealing with. It would make The Training go a Lot smoother..."
Ida smiled as her old companion was restored to her old self. As she finished with that, she turned to raising the ghosts of goblins. "That is... fascinating." Ida commented after the duo finished their story. Goblins living in peace, bandits hunting goblins for goblin things. The particular behaviours of goblin ghosts... all fascinating. "A mine is a cave made by elves or men, where they spend time mining rocks from the ground - like iron, copper and the like." She explained, hoping the two will know something about the mine's location. She then asked directions to goblin village and the location of bandits. After that, Ida made her way to goblin's village.
As Mylea approaches the camp the smell of death hits her and almost makes her vomit. Still, she is able to endure and begins to examine the small camp... Spoiler: Investigation 1d100 = 90 Taking her time the priestess investigates everything in and around the small camp, and discovers a few things. For starters there's a set of runes around the camp. They are hard to see because they are almost the same color as the forest floor, and are likely protective runes – which would explain why the forest animals have left the dead body alone. The body itself is that of a young man, probably in his early twenties, wearing a dark brown robe. There's a simple wooden staff nearby, broken in two... or maybe not broken. Looking closer the half-dryad notices claw marks on the two halves of the staff, and after a closer look realizes that something has bitten right through the wood. The young man seems to have suffered the same fate – there are multiple claw marks visible on his body – the parts that are not rotting yet, anyway - and most of his throat is missing, as if some beast tore it off. A small backpack has fallen on the ground nearby. Inside Mylea finds some rations and two books. Oddly, there is no tent, nor any other camping supplies, as if he wasn't planning to stick around. In the center of the camp is a barely-noticeable magic circle, suggesting that the man cast some spell,or at least tried to. And in the center of the circle, barely noticeable, to the point where she almost missed it, is some strange blue light. Looking closer the priestess realizes that something was buried in the center of the circle. With some effort, using her hands, she manages to uncover it and finds a large blue crystal, in the rough shape of a tear drop and almost as big as her head. It is glowing with cold blue light, clearly magical, or at the very least enchanted. Unsure what it might be for or how best to handle it, she decides to check the two books in the hope that they might contain some clues. Spoiler: Decipher Writing 33 The first book appears to be some sort of diary, likely belonging to the dead man, while the other is some sort of spell book. Unfortunately every time Mylea tries to read either, the letters start moving around in a confusing manner, making it impossible. She will need help to figure out what secrets the diary and spell book might hold. Spoiler: Awareness 93 “Something's coming!” Mylea's investigation is interrupted by Jonas' shout. Looking at where the man is pointing to Mylea sees a large wolf-like beast, with black fur, slightly curved gray horns, and eyes glowing the same blue as the crystal she just found. It seems to have noticed them already, as it is approaching slowly, almost cautiously... “In the river?” The woman seems worried for a moment, but then shakes her head. “No, no, you misunderstand. I am not looking for an item, rather I am in need of a quiet, out of the way spot, to have a... private meeting, but I am new here, so I was not sure where I should look... Sounds to me like I should choose a place that is not so close to the river, just in case. Thank you for the warning.” She offers a polite bow, and for a brief moment she almost looks like a servant bowing to a lady. But as son as she straightens she is back to acting like some rich lady. “Anyway, I think I have wasted enough of your time. I will leave you alone now. Once more, thank you for the warning, miss.” She turns around, clearly about to leave. “Let's go.” She says to her two silent guards, and unless Komi calls after them the trio leaves, soon vanishing from sight, presumably in search of a suitable spot for the “private meeting”.
Mylea breathes steadily, gazing upon the wolf, as she holds the stone in her hand. Positioning herself behind Galza's sturdy frame, she thinks over her options. Normally, she'd use her nature powers to calm and even tame the wolf - but this beast is clearly magical, not natural, so that would be useless. Assuming that the stone and beast are connected, Mylea begins flooding the object with magical energy, blindly trying to fumble around with her power and activate the artifact, hoping that she can make the monster stand down. @Regin34 At the same time, Mylea sends a magical flare into the sky, harmless, but shining with intensity and noise, to get the other settler's attention.
Spoiler: Detect Magic 1d100 = 44 Magic – Divine = +20 Total = 64 At first Avella finds nothing – perhaps because she is too focused on searching for illusions and dark magic. But then, whether through luck or divine guidance, she senses something – traces of an unknown spell. They are barely noticeable, almost gone, but they are still there. Some sort of earth spell has been used in the area. Now that she knows what to look for it is easy to find the same traces on the other two locations she checked. It is impossible to identify the spell – there's barely anything left and she lacks knowledge about earth magic anyway – but an earth spell could explain how someone was able to erase all footprints. It doesn't explain why someone would want to do that, but it is a start... “Did you find something, miss?” The old man asks her, curiosity in his eyes. He clearly has no idea what she has discovered.
Abella clean her hands, standing up. Well, it wasn't something big, but it was good start to begin. Someone clean all evidence that people go there, but why? Guards return after searching and no one is missing from the village so, it couldn't be murder of someone. Well, for now she wasn't able to answer that question. "Did you find something, miss?" Old farmer asked her, taken away her thoughts. In first moment, Avella wanted to tell him what she learned, but on secend she decided it will be better to not share that information. "I regret to say that, but I can't find anything what could prove truth or false of rumors. Maybe it was what people said, just their imagination." She said and look around. "Thank you for your help, good men, let Everlight bless you, and your family." Avella decided to go back to lumber camp and ask for help from local druids, about them told her Patrick. They must have stronger connections with earth than her, so maybe one of them would help her solve this mistery.
The barkeep raises an eyebrow. “Show you a room? Sure, we can do that.” He turns to one of the waitresses that is currently free. “Ellie, the lady wants to see a room before she pays for one!” He calls and the girl comes over. Spoiler: Awareness 1d100 = 65 Deception: +20 Streetwise: +10 Total: 95 At first glance the girl appears to be young, sweet and innocent, and barely an adult – but Lydia is not so easily fooled. The girl's act is good, but her eyes give her away – she is definitely not as innocent as she pretends to be. And not quite so young, either, though still pretty young. “Hello, miss, I am Ellie.” She manages to sound sweet and innocent, too. “Follow me, I'll show you a room.” Ellie leads her up the stairs to the second floor and then to one of the many doors there. Taking out a simple iron key she unlocks and opens it. “Here, have a look,” she says as she stands to the side, allowing Lydia to look inside. A single bed with clean sheets, a small but sturdy night table next to it, and a heavy wooden chest to store items in. And everything seems to be mostly clean. On closer look some dust can be seen in the corners – and there's probably more under the bed – and if one looks carefully enough some faded stains can be seen on the floor and walls, apparently not fully cleaned up. Still, this is likely one of the cleanest rooms at this inn – possibly one kept clean specifically if someone asks to see a room before paying. The only obviously bad thing is that the only window is too small for an adult to pass through, so the only way in and out is through the door. At least said door can be barred from the inside, if necessary. “So, what do you think, miss? Satisfied?” Ellie looks at her expectantly. At first the barmaid gives his a suspicious look, but seeing that he isn't ogling her and isn't asking her to sleep with him she relaxes... a little. “All the food and drinks cost the same here, mister.” She informs him, before nodding. “Alright, stew and wine coming right up.” She leaves and goes through a door to the back of the establishment. A minute later she returns, carrying a bowl of steaming hot stew, stops at the bar to get a bottle of wine, a glass, and some utensils. The barmaid brings everything and puts it all on the table in front of him, then looks at him. “Anything else you need?” “Troublemakers? Not yet, not among the regular guards we have. But among the recruits... I'm not really sure. I guess it will become obvious during training. If you find any, you are free to enforce discipline as you see fit... as long as you don't kill anyone, or cause any life-threatening injuries, of course.” The captain shrugs. “Anything else?” He waits to her if she has more questions. If not, he leaves to go back to his other duties.
The two just shake their heads, apparently having no knowledge of any 'mine'. “Village? No village, just ruins now.” The second ghost points out. The first, apparently the smarter of the two, understands what she wants and shows her the way. It doesn't take long to reach the remains of the goblin village – although “village” might have been too generous a term for the place even before it was burned down. Looking at the remains she guesses that there were five or six buildings at most, with about a dozen goblins having lived there (making the four she found dead about a third of the entire “village”). On the plus side the bandits that attacked were likely not that numerous either. Spoiler: Investigation 1d100=22 Searching through the ruins Ida finds two mostly-burned goblin feet, one mostly-burned burned goblin hand, and nothing else. For whatever reason everything that was not nailed down was taken, and everything else was destroyed. There's nothing of value left – which also explains why the four goblins decided to leave. Spoiler: Tracking 1d100=56 Searching around the “village” Ida has better luck. It takes a while, but she eventually finds footprints she might be able to follow. It seems the bandits tried to cover their tracks, but at least a few of them did not do a very good job. The strange artifact resists her attempt, letting out a magical pulse that almost makes her drop it. The beast growls angrily, as if in response to what she just tried to do, and opens its mouth, revealing two rows of sharp-looking white teeth. “Frost breath!” Galza shouts, apparently guessing what the wolf is about to do. “Well, thank you for taking the time to investigate anyway, miss. I'm sure everyone will feel a bit more relaxed now.” The old man accompanies her for a bit longer, then goes back to his work while Avella heads back to the lumber camp to look for a druid. As she leaves the farms behind she spots a magical flare rise into the sky, and estimates that the source is on the other side of the river, somewhere to the south of the lumber camp...
