Season 2 - Episode 2: The Road to Westport

[_Silveredged]

"HALT!" The half elf tries to order the caravan. "Eyes and ears wide open," calls Leo as he stands and starts looking about the group's perimeter, bow at the ready. "Seems odd to have a body lying about in the middle of the road so close to town on such a well traveled and well kept road," he offers. "Traps like this are set often. I suggest we ready for defense."

OOC: once such defenses are made ready, Leo will offer to scout ahead and check the dead man and the area forward.

[Iain_IF]

Paladin keeps his eyes out for other corpses and for living folk too.

[Hywaywolf]

Doughbert retreaves his bow and notches an arrow. He ignores the body in the road and studies the surrounding area for an ambush.

[Arehzo]

Gannicus unsheathes his weapons and readies himself. The body seems too decomposed to make an imminent attack likely however.

[_Silveredged]

"There's no telling how long the poor sod has been dead," Leo says as he dismounts from the wagon, "A victim from a previous attack saved for later to be tossed out into the road as bait once the scouts spy an approaching caravan such as ours."

The half elf makes his way cautiously, senses piqued to notice anything from the surrounding brush. As he moves beside the wagons, an arrow held between his fingers and the haft of the bow, he uses his offhand to withdraw one of his spears.

Walking slowly forward, as he reaches the body he uses the spear to investigate the corpse in the road...

[Joe the Rat]

Mandross will scan around a bit, looking for signs of trouble. (What's the landscape here? Is there anything that provides obvious cover, or are we looking for camouflaged spider holes in the hills?)

[JoeCarr28]

As Leo advances slowly towards the body in the road, the others scan the surroundings for any unusual activity.

At this point of your journey, the road is passing through scrubland that is used for common grazing. It's widely populated by large prickly gorse bushes, which are both numerous enough and sufficiently sizeable to provide cover for anyone or anything that was seeking it.

[Rolls]

However, having said that, no-one can see any signs of trouble. The only thing out of the ordinary is the rotting body lying in the road.


~2 pm, 16th day of Leaffall
The Marketstone Campaign at Obsidian Portal

[_Silveredged]

OOC: Upon inspecting the body, what does Leo find? is it still intact enough to be moved off the road? or is it in soggy decomp by this point? If its not falling apart, he'll use the spear to flip it over to inspect further. Are there any glaringly obvious causes for the death? Arrows sticking out or throat slit?

any other details around the body or road? drag marks, any indications of movement on and off the road? lots of footprints around this area maybe? <tracking skill>

[SmootRK]

Nivek mutters a quiet prayer for the dead, but otherwise just keeps alert for trouble.

[Iain_IF]

Photo by Dean Kelch © 2001 CDFA

Paladin wonders about the half-elf's penchant for equating dead people with dirt. Having been a farmer once, since all halflings are farmers at least once, Paladin is well aware where dirt comes from, but he also thinks that the dead human is far from good compost at this point. Paladin chalks this up to another quaint human custom, like chopping the hands off of unfaithful women in love. Definitely have fallen in with barabarians, he mutters, before realizing that this might actually be an elven custom equating humans with dirt. Much more likely, he remarks idly.

Paladin surveys the gorse from his perch. He knows it is a good place to hide, having hid in gorse himself. Paladin takes a quick look around and up at the owl as well, to see if it still is with them.