Nettle [In Character Thread]

[Seraph]

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Nettle

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 [spoiler=The Story So Far]Assigned by the Church of Bethor of Shardmoore to investigate the mysterious disappearances of Merchant Wagons en route to the recently established Issacharian colony of New Farnesis, the heroes set out.  The Decree called for three bright novices from each of the three brances of the church; Clergical, Monastical, and Martial.  But a fourth came along; a young halfling caught pickpocketing by Fate, the Paladin, who brought her along to teach her a lesson in honest work.

The disappearances had been attributed to Highwaymen, but it was the opinion of someone in the church that there was something else going on.  Taking the forest path, our heroes were held up by bandits, led by a man named Ludevigo.  Doing battle with this group of ruffians and slaying the leader, the heroes arrive in New Farnesis.  Investigating, the heroes find that in addition to the highwaymen problem, the city is also having trouble with its sewer system, causing a smell.  

The heroes in their investigation stumbled across a clue: Kobolds engaged in combat with the town guards outside the entrance, who fled into the sewers on defeat.  Giving chase, the heroes find that they have been lured into a trap.  After a difficult battle and several near death experiences, the heroes prevail and discover another important clue: A note written in Sylvan, revealing the existence of a spy, and hinting at some plans involving a tree coming to fruit that was signed "Nettle" and a staff topped with what else but stinging nettle.  Taking their findings to Captain MacHeath, they are scolded, as the Highwaymen have attacked again, and this time killed indisputibly.  They pinned a note on the corpse instructing "the ones that killed Ludevigo" to meet them in the woods for a showdown. . . [/spoiler]

 [ic=The Scene]As you make your way to the city gate to face the Highwaymen, a gruff voice calls out to you.  Turning to address your caller, you see that he is a dwarf of the town guard.  He addresses Horace primarily, with a nod to each of you, huffing a bit as he speaks.[/ic]
 [ic=Frederick]"Creedmoore, Capn says you aren't to go.  The note said for them to go alone, and we don't want to provoke them further.  If your friends can deal with them our problem is solved, but if not we've got not just killers but angry killers on our hands.  Instead you're to investigate the town itself.  See what you can come up with."[/ic]
 [ooc]What do you do?[/ooc]
 OOC THREAD

[outofstep]

[ooc]Yndraji is waiting for someone else to react because silence is the better part of not doing something stupid.  Also because his player would normally be knitting here. C'mon guys.[/ooc]

[Adria]

[ic=Adria]Horace isn't coming along? As nice as it might be to have his extra manpower--me, not knowing what we're going to find when we meet the highwaymen; me, wanting to keep my skin intact--this turn of events will make life easier for me. At least insofar as Fate is concerned. I strategically stay silent. No one notice the half-size woman, standing in the shadow of the Paladin; she's no one of consequence. Don't pay any more attention to her than you would the flies buzzing around your ale. Brush her off and ignore her.

Besides, what we do here, it's not up to me. I do what I'm told--I'm not a fool; I like my skin. I do what I'm told and I'll walk with the rest of them when we go to meet the highwaymen. I'm part of the group, whether I want to be or not. The Paladin made sure of that the day he left his eyes too far open in the Shardmoore streets.[/ic]

[ooc] ...would've reacted sooner, but wasn't at my computer for pretty much all of yesterday. Sorry. (Also, I've been in the habit of writing first person lately, which is why Adria's being written in the first person for now...)[/ooc]

[Seraph]

[ooc]Ok, I gave you guys more that enough time to post, and tried to be flexible on my deadlines, but I can't wait any longer to have something happen.[/ooc]

 [ic]Frederick looks back and forth between each party member in turn, and, receiving no argument, barks an order to Horace to follow him back to the Guardhouse.

. . .

With the way ahead of you, you head back out on the trade road to the scene of your ambush, where the corpse of the victim of the highwaymen is still hanging from a tree, impaled on a sword, along with a note written in an unpracticed hand.  
 

To Them What Killed Ludevigo
This is a warning to you that we have our eyes set on you for revenge.  You beat us once but we isn't finished yet.  We want you, and unless you   akweeyes to our demands, there will be more killins.  1 a day till we get our revenge.  So come to the woods bout that way

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and go strayt till you find us.  No Guard.
Morty[/font]

The arrow points off in the direction of where the Highwaymen you defeated fled into the woods. . .[/ic]

[Adria]

[ic=Adria]I walk up to the corpse, hand over my nose to shield from the fresh rotting-flesh smell, and peer at the note. Seems pretty obvious to me--we kill their beloved Ludevigo, they're upset, they want some sort of revenge on us, and they'll keep killing innocent people until they get their way. An effective strategy, up to a point, since they don't care about the lives of the innocent and they know us well enough to know that we do. Well. Some of us do. Me, I'd be pretty happy high-tailing out of here, back to a city where I can make a decent living without the ever-present eye of the law staring at me. Damn Paladin.

But that line of thinking, it's wishful and not going to happen. I read over the note again, and comment, "Does it seem to anyone else that blindly wandering into the woods on the whim of a band of highwaymen is a bad idea? They don't exactly sound like they'll be in a welcoming mood when they see us." And me, I value my skin.

The note, it says, So come to the woods bout that way. Go strayt till you find us. No Guard.... They're telling us where they are (well, vaguely). It strikes me as a little odd that the guardsmen of the town don't want to take this chance to set up some ambush of their own, catch the highwaymen who've been plaguing their woods, do something about the problem, but... A hint of a smile, there--it's not that odd; I know very well how concerned town guardsmen are with what's within their walls versus without. Helped me quite a bit back on the road to Shardmoore, that knowledge.
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[outofstep]

[ooc]Yndraji wants to a) take the note off the person, b) take the sword out of the person, c) use the sword to cut the rope that tied the victim to the tree, and d) bury the person.  Since the person is "hanging," my guess is that Yndraji is not tall enough to reach and cut the rope that hung the person up, so he'll need to climb the tree a bit.  Do I need to roll etc for that?  As soon as I get an answer, I'll post.[/ooc]

[Seraph]

[ooc]Perhaps I was unclear.  There is no rope holding up the man's body.  He is "hanging" on the sword itself.  The sword penetrates deep into the tree and holds the man up.  Now, you may attempt to extract the sword so as to bury the man, but it will require a strength check. (1d20+Strength Modifier)[/ooc]

[outofstep]

[ic]Yndraji walks around Adria and unhooks the note from the button on the dead man's jacket, setting the note aside on the grass and trying to wipe some of the blood off.  He succeeds only in smearing the stuff across the letters, which remain legible despite it, and even if they weren't everyone would remember what it said.

"I wonder," he says, "if they'd mind terribly if we borrowed the sword to dig this man's grave.  Unless any of you are handily carrying a shovel?  I don't wish to be seen carrying a corpse into the city.  But first, to get him from the tree."  Yndraji reaches to grip the hilt of the sword, planting a foot against the trunk of the tree, and pulls.[/ic]

[ooc][dice]1d20 +1[/dice] so I guess that's what's rolled.. let's see how it comes out.
ETA: This can't be proper coding; it's statistically unlikely for me to get the same result twice if it's a real random number generator.  What am I doing wrong?
ETA2: 10 =/= success.[/ooc]

[ooc]Is there religious significance to being pinned to a tree, or is it just...convenient?[/ooc]

[Fate]

[ic=Fate]"Someone should check his body for clues, before we bury him."[/ic]

[Seraph]

[ooc]No there is not religious significance to being pinned to a tree.  It's mostly for effect.  

I mentioned this in the OOC thread, but when you roll dice, put 1d20 (or whatever is appropriate) instead of just d20.  Saying "d20" defaults it at the value of 20.[/ooc]

[Fate]

[ooc=Fate]"convenience is my guess"[/ooc]

[beminkoff]

[ic=Torin]I doubt there is anything to find. He seems a simple traveler beset by bandits. We must pay our respects for the dead, but as instruments of the One God, we shall bring him justice.

I'm a bit concerned as to what our next move is, though. Don't want to walk into another trap.[/ic]

 [ooc]Sorry for taking so long. I'll try to be more prompt from now on.[/ooc]

[Seraph]

[ic]Yndraji fails to extract the blade from the unfortunate corpse, only resulting in the body becoming slightly more eviscerated.  It must have taken a strong arm to lodge the sword so resolutely.[/ic]
 [ooc]Others may attempt to remove the sword, or you may "Take 20" on the check.  Granted, this is presumed to take about 40 minutes, but it quickens play.[/ooc]

[Adria]

[ic=Adria]I slide back as Yndraji steps over and takes the note. No need to get in the way, especially not when digging graves keeps cropping up in conversation. If my overly zealous companions wish to bury him, I have no complaints--so long as I'm not the one who has to dig his grave.

What sort of background did the man have, I wonder? Simple traveler beset by bandits or not, he's bound to have some family somewhere. By his clothes, he's well-to-do enough to have connections who'd be sad to see him dead, which means he's not a man from town. Unless no one cared (or knew, I suppose) to claim his body.

I turn and look at Torin when he speaks; his thoughts echo mine. "Exactly what I said," I tell him (but not in a bitter sort of way; no need to provoke him). "Walking into another trap is precisely what I don't want to do--and these highwaymen, if they're as bent on revenge as they say, they're not planning a pleasant little happy party for our visit." I pause. Traps. Now there's a thought.

"Do you think..." Will anyone care to listen to me? So far I've been doing my best to keep my head down, so to speak (to calm the waters), but... It might be time to change that. "What do you think of setting up a trap of our own? They say they'll give us a body a day until we go meet them--think there's a way of setting up something that'll lure them out, get them to try to kill who we want them to kill, and spring on them instead?" Might be a stupid idea, come to think of it, and hard to arrange, but... Well, as Fes taught me, even a bad idea can set up a good idea.[/ic]

[Seraph]

[ooc]There was a suggestion to search the body, so while we're being observant, let's have everyone make a spot check.

 [spoiler=Result of 19 or higher] [ic]You notice a silver bracelet a ways up the man's wrist, which on closer inspection can be seen to be engraved with the man's address in Shardmoore.  He's not from New Farnesis.  The highwaymen must have killed him and pinned him rather hastily to have missed it.
 [spoiler=Result of 22 or higher][ic]You catch sight of something out of the corner of your eye.  Something moving behind a tree, roughly the shape of a man.
 [spoiler=Result of 27 or higher] [ic]You see a man, slender and graceful of figure, half-hidden by the trees.  He looks out at you eyes that reflect the light, shining green in the shade of the trees.[/ic] [/spoiler] [/ic][/spoiler] [/ic] [/spoiler] [/ooc]