(INC) The Bellows of War- Battle Thread!!

[EdgeGrinder]

Alloishus canceled his Light spell, put away his mace and took out this Elven Curve Blade. He started to focus on the barn with Detect Magic.

[Wolfykins]

Niyolaku approached the dark circle in the middle of the barn, circling around it. He pawed at it hesitantly and whuffled at Kamoru.

Kamoru had been looking up at a rope and pulley attached to the center rafter of the barn, but turned to look at the wolf when he made noise. She crouched down next to him and touched the brown circle and then looked at her fingers, frowning.
"Is this... paint...?"

Kamoru hastily wiped her hands on her pants as she jumped to her feet and skipped back a step. "UGH! Oh gods, that's not paint! That's blood!" she cried.

[Darius Vibrtrar]

billy Shifts his stances as his eyes turn white as he enters the barn. He looks all around, spear in hand, but he begins to make his way toward the pile of bones.

((Detect Evil is up))

[EdgeGrinder]

"I detect no magic at the moment." Alloishus announced. He cautious stepped into the barn, avoiding the dung, staying close to the door and scanning for nonmagical threats.

Perception
(1d20+6)[8]

[paladin_artea]

"Oh man, the bones...I hope they're not..." Trelane commented but refused to voice the thought he was sure the rest of the party dreaded. Remembering that blunt force worked better against skeleton monsters than his knives would, he kept his sling handy...just in case.

[Wolfykins]

Kamoru suppressed a shudder and without turning back to face the others, brought her hand up to her eye level and pointed upwards. "There's a rope right above here. I think, they-" she paused, took a sharp breath and swallowed, "-hung a victim, or several, and bled them out like wild game," she said tightly. "The ifrit said something about 'feeding' some...thing... and this? Well, it makes it look like maybe that was more literal than poetic."
She took another step back and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. Her expression was stony as she stared at the circle of old blood. Her mouth tightened further and she spoke a bit louder, "Alright, I don't really expect an answer, but if the Graymane children are hiding in here, you need to come out now. We're from Goldenrod, and we'll patch you up and take you to safety."

[STDM Grizzly Ad]

Aloishus steps in, looking for a place with no manure. He steps into the circle that looked cleaner than the rest but quickly hopped back as the ground gave way beneath him. The area falls into a hole 10' deep that looks like it connects to the tunnel he was just in.

[EdgeGrinder]

Alloishus landed on more solid ground gracefully. "Ohhp, found a trap." He said nonchalantly. "Tre, my man, this is your Forte. Sorry for stealing your thunder." He waved out an arm as if presenting the barn to Trelane.

[paladin_artea]

"Important thing is you're safe," Trelane replied. He carefully peered into the hole, "Weren't we just down there?" he asked, "Maybe we shoudl break out a rope and torch to make sure?" he suggested.

[EdgeGrinder]

"No need to waste a torch. I can just cast Light on some debris, toss it down, and politely ask a flier to scout it out... if we don't figure that answer up here first." Alloishus suggested.

[STDM Grizzly Ad]

AL casts his cantrip on an offround stone he found and tosses it into the hole. His familiar flies into the hole and shortly flies back out of the hole outside where Osman originally fell in. She returns calmly to Al with nothing unusual to report. All seems to be quiet for now.

[EdgeGrinder]

"That went well." Alloishus Said. "Okay, so we have a barn with no animals, but plenty of dung. Where are the animals?"

Alloishus searched for loose ground to avoid.

Perception
(1d20+6)[8]

Once inside properly, he searches for unusual details.
Perception
(1d20+6)[15]

[paladin_artea]

Since Alloishus's familiar returned without incident, Trelane looked around the barn once more and had a puzzled look on his face, "You know, other than the obvious dung around here, I see no signs of the animals that should be here. No bodies to indicate they're dead. I think there's more here than what we're seeing. I'm going to take a closer look at the bones in the corner over there," he said approaching cautiously.


Stealth check: (1d20+12)[20]

If nothing happens, a heal check to examine the bodies:

Heal Check: (1d20+10)[30]

[paladin_artea]

As Trelane looked over the pile of bones he called out to the others, "Well good news is, these bones definitely don't belong to the children, or any person that might have lived here. These are all farm animals. They've been practically picked clean for both meat and leather probably as well, which means this was not done by a monster or animal, but a person or persons of some skill, though they did it in haste. They've been like this for 3 days to a week at most. Perhaps we already took care of those responsible?"

[EdgeGrinder]

"Could you scan the parimeter, Vivian?" Alloishus asked his familiar.

She flew outside of the barn to scan the parimeter.

Vivian's perception
(1d20+16)[21]

Alloishus looked out the brownish circle beneath the pulley.

Knowledge Arcana
(1d20+8)[9]

Vivian returned to make her report. "The barn is 5 feet wider on the outside than it is on the inside. Basically, smaller on the inside."

[paladin_artea]

"Sounds like there's a hidden room or corridor then," Trelane concluded, "odd for a barn to have, but if it's there, I'll find it," he said confidently while looking around the barn.

Perception check: (1d20+10)[28] +3 more if trapfinding applies to hidden passages?

[Wolfykins]

Distracted, Kamoru looked up at Alloishus and Trelane and frowned. "But that's odd, isn't it? Why would common farmers build a secret room into their barn? Surely the duergar wouldn't have built an addition onto the barn."

[EdgeGrinder]

"I think the Graymanes were not just simple farmers. The Duergar presence makes me wonder if there was something in the ground." Alloishus speculated.

[paladin_artea]

Trelane poked around the room until he saw a rope against the wall, coiled up. He un-coiled it and pulled on it which lowered a small door at an angle, "Actually this makes sense," he informed the others as he peeked inside, "This room is filled with barrels full of feed for the animals. Nothing sinister about it's construction, but maybe we should look deeper inside."

[Wolfykins]

"Is it really that unusual to encounter the duergar?" Kamoru asked, looking puzzled, "I thought they were a pretty big part of the Solkari forces. From a tactical point, it makes sense to attack farms. Nothing slows an army down faster than running out of food. And tunneling into enemy territory is a good plan, since you can't very easily set sentries underground unless there's already existing tunnels there. Out of what makes up the bulk of enemy forces, I can't really think who would be better suited to the task of tunneling than the duergar." Kamoru shrugged and hooked her thumbs in her pockets. "It just doesn't strike me as that surprising that we'd encounter what we've encountered so far."

She strode over to Trelane and peeked around him into the room. Perception: (1d20+14)[15]

[EdgeGrinder]

"Very true, Kamoru, but is the value of this location strictly a strategic position? Perhaps we shall see." Alloishus replied.

[Wolfykins]

Kamoru looked over her shoulder at Alloishus and gave him a vaguely apologetic sort of grimace. "Quite frankly, it doesn't matter, does it? The army was supposed to have routed the enemy from here already, and we weren't told we were supposed to do reconnaissance. Any information we can gather is really just a bonus, and I don't think the army will be interested in our speculations about the enemy's motives. They'll want to draw their own conclusions, based on information we don't have access to."

[paladin_artea]

"We're also here to look for survivors and this looks like a good hiding place. I think we probably defeated whatever forces Solkar left behind so let's check this small room at least," Trelane said as he entered it.

[Wolfykins]

Kamoru nodded and followed. Hmm... if I was going to hide in here, where would I choose?
Niyolaku bumped against her calves as he squeezed in behind her. She glanced down at him, expression thoughtful. I think it's too dusty for scent in here, from the grain. But this is a different room, so maybe he can Detect something out of place in here.
"Niyolaku," she murmured, touching his shoulder, "Detect." Handle animal: (1d20+7)[8]
Niyolaku sneezed and turned away, ignoring her.
"H-hey!" Kamoru scowled at him. "Fine," she muttered, "be that way."

---

* post roll count doesn't match database

[EdgeGrinder]

"Do you see me knocking on every general's door to chat them up over tea and supposed battle strategy? Well, not this week anyway. This is a war of economics. So I wouldn't be so quick to disregard monetary motivations." Alloishus replied curtly.

[Wolfykins]

Kamoru bristled, glaring at Alloishus. "I'm not 'disregarding' motivations of any sort! I am not the one speculating on what the motivations might be. All I said was that it doesn't matter. We don't have all of the information the army does, and they're sure as hell not gonna share it with us. We're not even in the army! Any speculations you want to make are going to be based on a severely incomplete picture of the circumstances, because, as you said, you're not talkin' shop with generals. And you know what? There's probably a reason for that!" she crossed her arms and fixed the elf with a baleful, defiant stare.

[EdgeGrinder]

Alloishus smiled as he looked back at her. He thought her tribal background had given her a utilitarian outlook on life. Perhaps, it had. She was no very forthcoming about herself on the way to Goldenrod, so he had to find out about her in other ways.

"But questions do matter. Just because we don't have the whole picture doesn't mean we can't try to imagine it and as long as you don't act on partial information there is no real harm on wondering, speculating, or asking questions."

[Wolfykins]

Kamoru sucked in a breath and opened her mouth, but then stopped. She snapped her mouth shut and let her breath out slowly through her nose. She closed her eyes briefly and summoned forth the monk stoicism her father's best friend had instilled in her when he helped train her. Calmed, she opened her eyes and adopted a neutral expression and tone when she finally spoke.
"There is a difference in asking questions or seeking answers, and trying to fill in the gaps in your knowledge with guesses," she said evenly, "and we're not here to waste time trying to suss out the enemy's motives. You're wrong; this ceased to be a war of economics the minute the hoards burst forth from the ground and began slaughtering any living thing within reach. There is no money to be made in slaughtering civilians instead of enslaving them. And you're wrong on another count... speculating on things like this can lead to confirmation bias. It's entirely possible the enemy has no motive beyond the obvious destruction of Goldenrod's food supply here, but if you think they're here for treasure and we happen to find a pile of treasure, you'll believe that you were right, even if that treasure was entirely incidental. And then when the time comes to debrief, instead of just telling the military official you speak with the facts--that there were enemies here and treasure as well--you'll tell them the enemies were here for the treasure, because you'll be sure you're right." She paused, and her expression hardened as she met the elf's eyes directly. "But the bottom line is, right now, it doesn't matter. Finding those children, if they live, is what matters."

[EdgeGrinder]

Alloishus smirked. " Sharp as a tack with a tongue to match." He said. "Alright then. I think you spelled out the situation for us quite nicely, Kamoru. This is a beginning of a war of attrition. Thusly, this farm was targeted as I'm sure other farms are being targeted as well. These tunnels under our feet lead all over the country side and would take weeks if not longer to map out. But that's not what we're here for. That's another adventure for another day. For now, the kids. There has got to be countless number of places for a child to hide. So think about it. These children aren't coming out to beckoning friendly sounding voices. The enemy probably tried that if they cared. We need to lure them out by other means. The enemy most likely destroyed all food sources so those kids, if they live, are hungry. I suggest we start a cooking fire and find some wild game to cook. If no kids, at least we have some food."

[Wolfykins]

"..." Kamoru squinted at Alloishus for an uncomfortably long moment. Niyolaku grunted and bumped the back of her knee with his head. Absentmindedly, her hand burrowed into his ruff and she clenched her fist in his fur.
"Fine," she said finally, voice tight, "if his majesty," her tone slightly mocking, "wants game, Niyolaku and I will see what we can do. In the meantime, why don't you start the fire, since you're so magical," she spat. "There's a cooking kit in the wagon."
She stomped out of the feed room, and then out of the barn, with Niyolaku close behind her.
"Alright, Niyolaku. Go have some fun. Hunt!" (Roll on dice roller thread.)
Niyolaku excitedly dashed away to find prey. Survival check: (1d20+5)[14]
Kamoru set off after him, veering off to a different angle so they wouldn't cover exactly the same ground. She scanned the ground for any sign of large animals that she could take on by hand, since she didn't have any ranged weapons. Perception: (1d20+14)[31]