[Dharak] The possibilities for attack and ambush are far too great; although it's no longer a military establishment, it's still very much a castle, designed for defence against intruders. And Dharak is the intruder here. Dharak senses that the body has been dead for two or three days; again he can sense echoes of a mental battle. Someone has already rifled the body, very recently, and this has muddied the echoes a little. >[OOC: Tim, what time of day is it? How's the weather? >Roughly how big is the courtyard? The place he's in is about 20' square; to his left is the doorway into the keep, and a second doorway leading to another courtyard. On his right a 10' wide passageway leads to a much larger open area. >Is the ground dirt, cobblestone, flagstone? The area he's in is hard-packed earth, with a few cobbles peeping through. >Dharak is no >tracker, but are there any other obvious signs of a struggle here -- >besides the stiff, I mean?] It doesn't look as though any kind of pitched battle has taken place -- Tim Hall, timjh (at) csi.com * http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/timjh "Divide by cucumber error: Please reinstall universe and reboot"
[Dharak] To the keep, then. If there are any survivors, that's where they'll be. And what will I tell them? Dharak wonders as he crosses to the doorway leading into the keep. "Oh no, Mr. Wizard d'n Kandarpants, I'm not a bandit. I'm just an armed human from the wilderness who had a bad dream." As unsettling as this doomed fortress is, Dharak finds his own irrational compulsion to search the place more than a little amusing. >[Dharak] > >The possibilities for attack and ambush are far too great; although >it's no longer a military establishment, it's still very much a >castle, designed for defence against intruders. And Dharak is the >intruder here. > >Dharak senses that the body has been dead for two or three days; again >he can sense echoes of a mental battle. Someone has already rifled >the body, very recently, and this has muddied the echoes a little. > >>[OOC: Tim, what time of day is it? How's the weather? >>Roughly how big is the courtyard? > >The place he's in is about 20' square; to his left is the doorway into >the keep, and a second doorway leading to another courtyard. On his >right a 10' wide passageway leads to a much larger open area. > >>Is the ground dirt, cobblestone, flagstone? > >The area he's in is hard-packed earth, with a few cobbles peeping >through. > >>Dharak is no >>tracker, but are there any other obvious signs of a struggle here -- >>besides the stiff, I mean?] > >It doesn't look as though any kind of pitched battle has taken place > >-- >Tim Hall, timjh (at) csi.com >* http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/timjh > >"Divide by cucumber error: Please reinstall universe and reboot"
[Dharak] The doors have been forced, and very recently by the looks of it. He steps inside to find a scene of desctruction. There has been a battle in the shattered great hall of the castle. The great wooden table is overturned, chairs shattered, tapestries and wall-hangings torn and charred. Two bodies lie on the floor, one of them badly burned. -- Tim Hall, timjh (at) csi.com * http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/timjh "Divide by cucumber error: Please reinstall universe and reboot"
[Dharak] With all the stealth he can muster, Dharak steps through the hall, passing close enough to the bodies to ascertain their race, gender, whether they were armed -- without stopping to examine them closely. He scans the walls for exits, especially stairs leading upward. That tower he saw before might give him a good vantage point to survey the whole castle. He's trying to reconcile the clues he's seen so far. That corpse outside was at least two days dead, and had been looted. The door to this hall had been recently forced -- by the looters, he supposed. Bandits? If the human band he'd been teaching wasn't doing the looting, then he didn't know who else it might be, except perhaps some of the vordral he'd heard about. But what were the chances that human or vordral brigands would be psionic? Those echoes of mental combat were extremely fresh, fresher by far than the dead kandar in the courtyard. And they'd locked minds in the gatehouse, the first floor of which, at least, had been empty. So ... either the psionic attackers had made a final push, mentally at the gatehouse and physically here, busting through the door (which meant they might well still be inside), or maybe the Academy of the Mind had sent a rescue mission that had to fight its way *in*. Dharak shakes his head. Either way, this could get ugly. >[Dharak] > >The doors have been forced, and very recently by the looks of it. He >steps inside to find a scene of desctruction. There has been a battle >in the shattered great hall of the castle. The great wooden table >is overturned, chairs shattered, tapestries and wall-hangings torn and >charred. Two bodies lie on the floor, one of them badly burned. > >-- >Tim Hall, timjh (at) csi.com >* http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/timjh > >"Divide by cucumber error: Please reinstall universe and reboot"
[Dharak] Just like the outer door, the door into the tower has been forced. Dharak can hear voices from somewhere higher up in the tower. -- Tim Hall, timjh (at) csi.com * http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/timjh "Divide by cucumber error: Please reinstall universe and reboot"
[Dharak] Here we go, he thinks. Dharak picks his way through the door to the tower, with the intention of sneaking close enough to the speakers to eavesdrop upon them. Then he'll decide whether to hide, or to introduce himself. He's beginning to like to "Academy of the Mind rescue mission" scenario, but that could be either good or bad. If they were Progressors, he might be able to have a reasonable conversation with them. If he found himself eyeball-to-eyeball with half a dozen of those Kasranth Sar sister-*&^@ers, he'd be one dead Son of Man. We'll find out soon enough. Onward and upward ... quietly. >[Dharak] > >Just like the outer door, the door into the tower has been forced. >Dharak can hear voices from somewhere higher up in the tower. > >-- >Tim Hall, timjh (at) csi.com >* http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/timjh > >"Divide by cucumber error: Please reinstall universe and reboot"
[Dharak] [Dharak] Dharak can hear at least three distinct voices. -- Tim Hall, timjh (at) csi.com * http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/timjh/kalyr.htm
