Halforums & Halflings Chapter One: Cult of the Dragon Below

<OOC> My intentions thus far were to disperse the crowd so they don't get a mob mentality and once they dispersed my Persuasion song was directed at the player characters, the guy arguing with the cripple and any other likely NPCs in the area of the argument. <OOC>
 
"Ah! A light in the darkness! Truth be told, I'm not certain of the exact circumstances. Some children recently have gone missing, one named Kimmie, owner of Lord Frogsworth there and acquaintance of our dwarven friend. Eropall's husband has already attempted to find them but has now gone missing himself. He had come to me days ago, asking to assist in the search but" Brenlin gestures to his quarterstaff, his ornate leaf-shaped shield and...rough...clothing "as much as I wished to help, alone I feared I'd be no better off. But this has gone on too long now, and with others missing, I must steel myself. We must try. Slapdash has agreed to assist as well so our ranks swell with your aid. If the bard there joins in, well. All the merrier.


My name is Brenlin, lovely to meet you."
"Pleased to meet you, Brenlin. My name is Erithacus Rubecula. I will gladly help in any way I can - while I'm not at home in this area, I have plenty of experience looking and scouting from the sky. If or when a trail or a direction is found, the sky is no doubt the best way to scout ahead. No child should be separated from their parents against their wishes. "
Rubecula ruffles their feathers and plucks some down from somewhere near their chest, somewhat nevously.
 
As the last of the onlookers begine to disperse, an Orcish woman address Ren

"Listen, it's not that we're unmoved by the blight of these young ones it's just..."

she lets out a long sigh and stares off into the distance,

"The war took so much from so many. We have little left to give. But I will do my best to give more. I own a shop at the edge of town. Grelka's Goods is the name. Come by and see me if you need any small odds and ends before you go."

She pats you on the shoulder before departing.
 
Eropall approaches the child with her hand out and pulls a gold coin from his pouch.

"Yes, I see. Please little one, if you know anything or can lead us to where the children were staying that would be of great help and of course diserving of a reward"

He passes it to the child who flips it between her fingers before flicking it up and catching it.

"Right one bruv, let's crack on then. Best grab anything ya want on the way out."

She starts to lead the way through town.
 
"Set the course, dwarf!" Rubecula says, as they take to the sky and lazily flop after the child.

Rolled a lovely 6 (+2 = 8) perception, but I assume Ruby'll still manage to follow the dwarf's trail without too much problems.
 
The dwarven child leads you to a small cottage about 30 minutes walk into the woods.

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It looks like it was once abandoned but has had some minor repairs done. The dwarven child addresses the group:

"Well 'ere it is. They's been livin' here seein' as the geezers what lived here before musta left or died or got eaten by something like you do. Towns folk leaves em alone well enough and sometimes Kimmie and the gang will sneak in to grab a few things that won't quite be missed. Ave a look around I guess"

Make an investigation or survival check anyone who wants to look around.
 
Slapdash had hesitated at first. He was here to visit his friend not follow a child for what seems to no longer be a missing person. If the child was fine, he should not be needed.

But his curiosity always got the better of him. He needed to know. So he found himself investigating a small cottage for a closed case anyways.

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A surprising result!
 
"We've been on a merry chase,
Now we're at a dreary place.
Signs of children to be found,
I guess we should look around."


Investigation 17
 
Rubecula decides to flutter into the low hanging trees near the cottage and look around, depending on the angle provided perhaps trying to peek through the window....
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Upon entering the cottage, it's hard to tell at first as it's obvious the children had been using this as a flop house of sorts, but you notice there are signs of a struggle. You aren't sure what exactly happened but you see what looks like it could be a drag mark leading out of the cottage and into the nearby woods. Following it for a bit you notice under some brush an odd footprint going with the drag mark.

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OOC, I have no idea whether those are random bird/lizard/type footprints or Aarakocra footprints. If they're not, I can roll something to see what they are but I haven't got any special knowledge on it. But if they were, I'd recognize them, right?
 
Survival check:

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Slapdash shrugs, unsure what to make of this. But it does appear that the mystery has returned. He looks intently at the dwarven child.
 
OOC, I have no idea whether those are random bird/lizard/type footprints or Aarakocra footprints. If they're not, I can roll something to see what they are but I haven't got any special knowledge on it. But if they were, I'd recognize them, right?
I should have mentioned before that the prints are small. You know enough to rule out Arakocra. Roll investigate or insight to see if you can pinpoint what exactly made this.
 
Ruby descends onto the ground and checks out the prints
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And comes to the astonishing conclusion that these are, more than likely, footprints of something smaller than they are themselves. Possibly with three toes.
 
As you follow the tracks for a bit it dawns on Ren that she's seen these before. It had been bugging you that there was just one set until you remembered that Kobolds sometimes walk in each other's footprints to hide their numbers.
 
"These tracks look like kobold feet. But it's hard to tell how many? Could a gang of kobolds have spirited away Kimmie, leaving behind just her frog?"

Ren, looks down at the tracks and tries to determine how many kobolds walked this way.

Perception 13 or 10 with Disadvantage
 
"These tracks look like kobold feet. But it's hard to tell how many? Could a gang of kobolds have spirited away Kimmie, leaving behind just her frog?"

Ren, looks down at the tracks and tries to determine how many kobolds walked this way.

Perception 13 or 10 with Disadvantage
You look closely at the footprints and down the path. You spot a few instances of where the kobolds had to get out of line, perhaps to re wrangle the children? By your estimate there must have been 5, probably more that helped take the children.
 
Slapdash looks to the dwarven child. "Did you expect to find Kimmie here?"
She looks up to you, and for the first time since you met her she has dropped her mean look.

"She and the others is usually 'ere in this hut ifin the ain't in town. Do...do you really think she might be in trouble Mr. Metal man?"

Eropall speaks up

"I don't think we're too far from where we found the doll and split up. I can't believe we were so close. If only we'd gotten here sooner maybe this would have been avoided"
 
"Do not feel unnecessarily ashamed or guilty, Eropall. We do not yet know what has happened. Perhaps the children are in a better place now. Or perhaps, had you been closer by, you would simply have endured the same fate as them. You have gathered this little group, and this may be of much greater assistance to these ones than whatever you might have done on your own. It seems they were led, or escorted, by these...whatever they were. I assume they're long gone, but just in case, I will fly ahead and see if I can spot a campsite or something like that in the direction of this trail. After all, I can move much faster above these bushes than you can through them."

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(I'm not sure what roll you'd like here, Survival would also make sense, or Nature if I'm looking for disturbances to the trees....But honestly, I was a sea scout, I wouldn't know a broken branch from a mouldy log. If you'd have preferred Survival, that's +0; Nature, +1. If there's a dedicated tracking stat I'm forgetting, well...I'm not a ranger or much of a land-tracker, anyway)
 
"Do not feel unnecessarily ashamed or guilty, Eropall. We do not yet know what has happened. Perhaps the children are in a better place now. Or perhaps, had you been closer by, you would simply have endured the same fate as them. You have gathered this little group, and this may be of much greater assistance to these ones than whatever you might have done on your own. It seems they were led, or escorted, by these...whatever they were. I assume they're long gone, but just in case, I will fly ahead and see if I can spot a campsite or something like that in the direction of this trail. After all, I can move much faster above these bushes than you can through them."

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(I'm not sure what roll you'd like here, Survival would also make sense, or Nature if I'm looking for disturbances to the trees....But honestly, I was a sea scout, I wouldn't know a broken branch from a mouldy log. If you'd have preferred Survival, that's +0; Nature, +1. If there's a dedicated tracking stat I'm forgetting, well...I'm not a ranger or much of a land-tracker, anyway)
I think since you're flying and looking for a more general something than a specific something perception should be fine.

You fly ahead a bit and spot a larger than average tree. It looks a little out of place in this type of Forrest. As you get a little closer you see a few rooftops and the top of a wall. It seems there may be some kind of barracks up ahead. Roll a History check since you were in the Breland military you may know what this is.
 
Having flown back to the group and informing them about what I saw, I'm now getting restless and annoyed at their lethargy."Come on guys, these younglings in trouble can't wait until their age day! Either we continue on, or we need to return to town to report and assemble a larger group if we cannot continue."
 
Sorry I haven't been updating, been going through a lot in the last month or so. But I need to just plug on and keep it going because honestly I'm having fun with this so I should be putting more time to it. I'll update tonight with the fortress.
 
Sorry I haven't been updating, been going through a lot in the last month or so. But I need to just plug on and keep it going because honestly I'm having fun with this so I should be putting more time to it. I'll update tonight with the fortress.
You're not the only one who hasn't been responding here. Just thought I'd do a quick shout and see who still turns up :D
 
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