CH. 04 - Written in Blood

[sarcastiksh0rtee37]

"ffff ffff do you smell or see any dead bodies? I don't detect any signs of them immediately. If this is a contagion then people don't seem to recover from it since no one is here but also the dead bodies I would assume to be here are gone. Perhaps that is the locals removing them for burial? I at least hope that it isn't the contagion not leaving people alone after death. With all the broken glass I could imagine wild animals, but the 'red X' doesn't fit well with that possibility assuming the red X and the lack of people are connected."

Vulpi and Seeboe will help Chispa look for tracks. Vulpi by using their nature skill to identify if any animal tracks Chispa finds are worth following. Seeboe by using their survivalist knowledge to be another pair of eyes -help action-

"You know what I find especially concerning? That this doesn't seem to have been inhabited by people for a while, but no creatures are here. I would have thought that soon after there were no more humans, animals would move in pretty quickly. I suppose they could be out getting food, but there should still be signs of nesting."

Are there signs of non-humanoids nesting in the house? Nature (I'm going to assume with disadvantage because Vulpi isn't actually going in the house but trying to peer through open doorways and windows from the outside, trying to maintain as much distance from the house as possible while still looking for those signs.):
VSpzrqwr1d20+4 1d20+41d20+4·1d20+4

[Daos]

Chispa does not notice any scratches or dead hands or other limbs in the vicinity of this particular house.

Likewise, neither she or Vulpi see any signs of animals nesting in the area.  There are tracks, but nothing terribly recent; they are largely faded with time.  It would appear they are the first living things to step foot in this area for at least a couple of weeks, if not longer.

[sarcastiksh0rtee37]

"Something is very wrong here. I suggest we move onto the next house to look for commonalities and differences."

[HorizonsDream]

"We haven't heard of a sickness going around though," Ha Yun says as she peeks inside one of the broken windows. "But it doesn't look like anyone has been here for a long time."

[Daos]

Moving to the next farmhouse, they find it is also marked with a large red 'X.'  The interior is similar to the previous one, but this time there are clothing and belongings strewn everywhere, all covered in crimson mud.

[sarcastiksh0rtee37]

Jun 6, 2024 18:11:07 GMT -8 HorizonsDream said:

"We haven't heard of a sickness going around though," Ha Yun says as she peeks inside one of the broken windows. "But it doesn't look like anyone has been here for a long time."

"We don't have much of any information. Perhaps I should say malady instead of contagion, but the presence of the red x says that something about these houses was important to know before entering. Contagious something, physical or magical in nature, is just a hypothesis, not a fact. Do you have a different hypothesis?"


Daos, when you say "crimson mud" do you mean mud made with blood? I figure if it is so then the smell would be potent enough and old blood a common enough smell that identifying it as blood wouldn't be so hard.

[Daos]

(OOC:  No, all of the soil found in the Ribbon and most of the Rattle so far has been red instead of the standard brown.)

[Igordragonian]

Zencho scratch his sideburns.
"Hmm."
He try to look around the house, looking for clues- maybe hints for violence or a wierd biological phenomon.


---
Investigation

QrzV|vlz1d20-11d20-1

[Bishgada]

Chispa looks over to look at the cloth. She thinks the person lived here drag themselves on the ground but she will try to figure if it was mud that got dried or dry earth to begin with, by poking the cloth with a stick and inspecting the folds and sturdiness of the cloths. 

===============================================================
(OOC: Cloths that are wet and get dried are usually more rough than normal cloth.
I throw insight and investigation for logic connections and clues. Investigation: 9XxQKWjQ1d20+3 Insight: 1d20+5)

1d20+3·1d20+5

[sarcastiksh0rtee37]

About how far apart are the various houses?

[Daos]

Each farmhouse is about 1/8th of a mile apart from each other.

Zencho does not find anything beyond what was previously observed.

As far as Chispa can tell, the clothes were muddied and then the mud dried over time.

[HorizonsDream]

"You could be very well rigjt," Ha Yin says with a shrug. "Maybe we should check out another house?" She asks.

[Daos]

Moving to the third house, they find that it is appears abandoned and has a red 'X' painted on it.  Inside, human bones litter the floor.  The bones appear to have teeth marks on them, as if they were gnawed on at some point.

[sarcastiksh0rtee37]

"Welp, we don't seem to be getting clear differences in the houses. At least this one has something we could more clearly learn from. Remember, we haven't seen any signs of animals around except now, the gnaw marks on those bones. Perhaps it is time to step inside." Before stepping inside Vulpi will toss a rock inside. If nothing strange happens, they'll light their torch and carefully step inside to inspect the bones and see if they can identify what type of creature has been gnawing on them.
Intelligence (nature) 8jM8TeSB1d20+41d20+4

[Daos]

There does not appear to be any activity inside the building.

Inspecting the bones, Vulpi's best guess is the gnaw marks were caused by giant coyotes, like the ones the party chased off of Ponder's farm not too long ago.