An Arl's Ransom

[mgbevan]

Using her sword as a crutch, Davne rises.

"I'm not sure how I'd fare against anything at the moment" She admits dryly to Simone, before taking up position in the centre of the group, leaving the leading to someone else at this point in time.

[HorizonsDream]

Simone takes the lead so that Davne can rest a little bit more now.

[JadedDM]

The party continues on with Simone in the lead instead of Davne. After another hour of travel, the light of a dying campfire can be seen ahead. "Ah, there they are," Alenka says. "Ser Blaker and the children have made camp by the road."

However, as they draw closer, it is clear something is amiss. The camp is silent; there is no noise other than the soft crackling of the fire. Then when they get close enough, they can see the wagon is on its side, one of the wheels sheared off. There are numerous bodies about, including a dozen horses, three Fereldan guardsmen, two genlocks, a hurlock (a taller, man-sized darkspawn) and two blight wolves (wolves that, like the owl they just fought, have been infected by the taint). One of the dead blight wolves is resting in the campfire itself, its smoldering fur sending up an awful reek.

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(OOC: It's still night, so any Perception checks will suffer a -1 penalty.)

[HorizonsDream]

Simone quickly pulls out her crossbow as she looks around the camp. Despite the dark, she tries to look around to see if there is anything else to see such as escaping footprints or anything like that.

[JadedDM]

Simone searches the outer area of the camp, searching for footprints. She finds the running footprints of six bipeds; at least one of them is clearly a younger person. The tracks lead east. From here, Simone can see that there is higher ground there, at least a quarter of a mile away.

"Where are Ser Blaker and the children?" asks Alenka. "Does anyone see them?"

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Simone makes a PER (Tracking) check in the dark (-1) [TN 13] (3d6+1): 3+5+5+1 = 14, pass.

[HorizonsDream]

"No," Simone says. "But there are footprints heading east to higher ground it looks like," she says.

[mgbevan]

Davne looks bleakly on at the carnage. "I don't see any children's bodies so they must have fled or been taken away."
Doing her best not to vomit, she kicks the blight wolf corpse off the fire as she explores the bodies.

[JadedDM]

"Then they might still be alive," Alenka reasons.

Davne searches around the camp, checking the bodies, but doesn't find anything of interest or that is noteworthy.

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Davne performs a PER (Searching) test in the dark (-1) [TN 13] (3d6): 1+2+6 = 9, fail. She finds nothing.

[mgbevan]

"Possibly" Davne replies, "But so much carnage was caused here that seems..."
Davne didn't feel the need to finish her sentence, she was sure those thoughts were on everyone's minds.

[HorizonsDream]

"I say we follow the tracks," Simone says.

[spyguy1503]

"There aren't enough bodies for an arl's kids escort, so some knights may still be alive!" says Wallace. He examines at the bodies.

[mgbevan]

Davne mumbles a reluctant agreement, not too keen to put herself in a near death experience again but she knows she has a duty to uphold.

[JadedDM]

Wallace attempts to search the camp, as well, but only manages to trip over his own feet in the darkness. He fails to find anything.

"Simone is right. Besides, if we don't find those kids, we don't get any pay," Alenka says. "I say we follow the tracks, as well."

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Wallace performs a PER (Searching) test in the dark (-1) [TN 13] (3d6): 1+1+1 = 3, fail. He finds nothing.

[spyguy1503]

"Let's go then!" says Wallace.

(OOC: God that was a bad roll! That would have been critical fumble and I probably would've landed on a sword in combat.)

[HorizonsDream]

Simone keeps her crossbow out as she starts following the tracks.