Border Wars [IC Thread]

[tigerusthegreat]

Colonel Valdez has recruited your group to investigate attacks on some of his soldiers on the border. You have been ordered not to cross the border, and if you do your charter to investigate will be revoked and nobody will come to your rescue.

The promise of gold and adventure (and patriotic spirit for some) finds you at the scene of one of the attacks. Several soldiers stand guard around it, but none want to look at the mutilated bodies that lie in pieces on the ground. From a quick look, it appears that the bodies are of two young men, but both are in enough pieces its possible there was a third. One has a look of horror frozen on its face, and dried blood is everywhere.

(This is a skills challenge, you have the scene of the attack and two NPCs to use to figure out a lead of what is going on)

[NotScaryBats]

Using her knowledge of unsavory deeds, Viola views the scene. The petite Drow Elf is dressed in sombre black and burgundy noble's attire, with a ruffled skirt and long sleeves keeping her delicate skin from being exposed. A parasol spins idly on her shoulder as she looks at the bodies closely. Despite her fragile experience, she shows no signs of squeamishness.

I'd like to use thievery and/or streetwise to investigate the scene as far as if the people were surprised, if there was a fight or just a slaughter, if weapons were used, and the like. I think those would be the skills for that, but if you'd rather do perception, I could do that.
[roll0]
add 13 for thievery
add 12 for streetwise
add 4 for perception

[tigerusthegreat]

Its obvious to Viola that this was done by an animal of some sort. In a fight among sentients there might be some biting, depending on species, but they were ripped apart with teeth and claws.

1 Success
0 Failures

[NotScaryBats]

"Wilian, dear, and Miss Montblanc, you know more about fantastic creatures than I. Obviously this was done by a beast of some sort -- no humanoid would have left marks like these -- but can you offer any suggestions as to what type?

[MiketheMountain]

Bugbear - Fighter (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=304055)
Bugbear Boulder, the once-famous wrestler and showman, struggles to hold back his lunch. Scenes of death and violence remind him that he is no longer a performer, and that the losers don't dust themselves off at the end of the night and head to the pub. But the gore on display here was more disturbing than anything he had seen before.

Stepping outside to catch his breath, Bugbear leans on the shoulder of one of the guards for support. Thinking on the scraps of clothing and what was still identifiable of one face, Bugbear tries to get an idea of who these men might have been. Turning to the guard, he says between heavy swallows, "*urp*... So, do you know where these poor fellas came from?"

Streetwise [roll0] to try and identify anything about the victims.

[Cheesy74]

Leanna, blade glowing by her side as runes twinkle across her leather tunic, complementing her silver hair and generally giving her a spectral appearance, winces at the scene but snaps back as Viola requests her expertise. She cranes her head upward, hand toying with her scabbard absent-mindedly as she places a hand on her hip.

"Off the top of my head, this is the work of a displacer beast. You can see, ah, these tracks here...there is a faded mirror of them over here. A displaced one." she explains.

[roll0] Arcana and [roll1] Nature to identify the perpetrators.
Don't fully understand skill challenges, but if it's a single roll I'll stick with the 16, it's +15 for Arcana and +4 for Nature.

[tigerusthegreat]

Bugbear's skills on the street prove quite useless, but Leanna's arcane insight proves more useful. Based on the patterns of the attacks and the tracks in the area, she's convinced that a displacer beast tore apart these men.

2 Successes (Thievery and Arcana)
1 Failure (Streetwise)

[Cheesy74]

Leanna taps a soldier on the shoulder with a gloved hand. "Excuse me? Could you, perhaps, tell us how long ago this occurred?" she inquires, trilling her R's a bit moreso than usual.

Diplomacy? [roll0]

[thereaper]

Wolfen decides to let his allies examine the bodies and looks around at the area, checking for clues as to how and why the attack occurred.

[roll0] Perception

"What were these men doing out here?"

Wolfen takes a swig from a wineskin.