The Flayed Man part 2

GAME: Seldan rolls survival: (13)+16: 29

GAME: Malik rolls Survival: (5)+5: 10

It's clear that something was buried he re.

It's weird, though. Sorting through the earth, starting to excavate it, gives the appearance that only the top layer of the soil was disturbed rather than anything else it beneath, which was all compressed. You dig down anyway, knowing that there's likely somethung here, and you're rewarded your implement clicking against something.

It is, as was not unwarrantedly predicted, bone.

By the time anything is found, Seldan is looking most thoroughly unhappy. "Something haunts this place," he states with a scowl, stabbing the shovel into the dirt firmly. Instead of more dirt, though, it hits something hard, and he bends down to peer at it, giving the ioun torch circling his head more opportunity to light it.

Iskandar squints down at the dirt. "Very disturbing," he remarks off-handedly. Then he turns and glances around. "This must be why the Flayed Man sent us here," he muses. "But to what end? What could this bone be to him?"

Malik hobbles over when the shovels finally manage to strike something, looking down. "Why," he whispers to nobody in particular, his voice not the least surprised, "is it never a chest of gold, or jewels? Or at the very least a nice bootlegger's stash of lagmi. No. It's always bodies and curses or monsters in metal containers." He gets out the bow, holding the thing in his hands. Just in case.

GAME: Malik rolls Heal: (11)+5: 16

GAME: Seldan rolls heal: (13)+10: 23

"I would not wish to find lagmi here," Seldan answers Malik, still scowling at the bones he's managed to dig up. His formerly polished armor is positively covered in mud and dirt, and the rest of him is little better. He will not want to re-fold the armor again until he has cleaned it. Finally, he pulls the whole thing free of the muck, and his frown only deepens. "Human-ish, a leg bone, I think. Someone is buried here ...." He pauses. "Something lies less than quietly, I think, and faced a fate less than kind."

Iskandar pulls out an oversized knife - the blade is immediately sheathed in fire, and he holds up the weapon like a torch to cast a bit more light. "Do we have to uncover more?" he guesses. "Move aside and I'll take a turn digging..."

Seldan lays down the leg bone and stands, ceding the shovel to Iskandar willingly enough and flexing his hands as he does do.

Dig dig dig dig dig.

It takes some time, a couple hours act ually, but before long you're pulling up more of the remains. They've seperated a little by time and compression, and it's interesting the way the top layer of the soil was disturbed but beneath that, where the bones ctually are, wasn't.

Still, you now have a skeleton and scraps of clothing, torn pieces.

GAME: Seldan rolls perception: (1)+5: 6 (EPIC FAIL)

GAME: Iskandar rolls perception: (5)+12: 17

GAME: Malik rolls Perception: (1)+19: 20 (EPIC FAIL)

The combination of mud and the smell of human remains is enough to overwhelm Seldan, who staggers back a few paces, covering his nose and mouth with his mud-covered cloak. "That is fouler still than the dead rat the landlady sent up in dinner that one evening," he complains to Malik, the alabaster complexion going ashen.

GAME: Iskandar rolls knowledge/local+2: (13)+5+2: 20

GAME: Malik rolls Knowledge/Local: (10)+6: 16

Malik doesn't even have a chance. The smell hits him before he has time to brace himself, completely overwhelming the archer. He leans to the side and tries to keep his lunch down, from the noise in his throat, nodding to Seldan's assessment as he looks at the body. "But it makes no sense," he says. "This body has been buried for a long time. The soil is compressed. But the soil over it isn't. Like someone started digging, or something was buried on top of it more recently. Or unearthed."

Iskandar had jammed his knife into the ground next to their impromptu dig site while digging. Now he climbs out of the shallow pit and pulls it out, wiping the still-fiery blade briefly with his bare hand to clear it of dirt and then holds it high again for illumination. "I recognize this heraldry, these colors. It is worn by members of a mercenary group known as the Frostmantles. They began in Stormgarde but have branches in other cities."

Still recovering from the awful smell, cloak covering his mouth and muffling his words a little, Seldan takes a step or two forward. "What would such as they be doing ... in this place?"

Malik shakes his head. "And why is a skinned apparition pointing us to him?" Malik follows up. "And also, as a minor point of curiosity -- who was the person out here doing the digging?" He glances around, looking at the others. "We may find answers here. Or we may not. Do we stay and search? Or return, and start a different sort of search?"

Iskandar watches Malik blankly as he asks his questions. Then he blinks and shakes his head slightly. "We are here, we may as well see if there's anything else to learn before returning to the city." He rubs his bearded chin. "I wonder if we should also chack with our skinless friend again. It would be too much to hope for that he's been put to rest...but I'm curious to see if he shows -any- reaction..."

GAME: Seldan rolls heal: (18)+10: 28

"Yes, we should come here but the once, if that is possible." Finally, Seldan drops the cloak from his nose and mouth and, with a deep breath and patient focus, begins to reassemble the bones. It takes him a couple of hours to dig the rest up and patiently reassemble them, but his frown deepens gradually as he does so. When he picks up the skull, though, he examines the marks on it carefully, and when he puts it in place, there's a positively chilled look in the pale eyes, by the light of that ioun torch.

"He lost a fight," the paladin says slowly, touching an arm bone with a spiral fracture in it, and a finger bone with a crack in it. "A young man, of the right age to be such a mercenary," he nods at Iskandar. "He was subdued ... was held down ... and flayed while yet living." He points to the wounds on the skull, which might have been made with a flaying knife, and swallows hard, standing. "If we would lay him to rest ... we must understand who committed such a heinous thing ... and why."

"If he was held down and skinned," Malik says, his voice extremely quiet at the disturbing news, "then that means we aren't looking for one person. We're looking for several. It takes some doing to keep a fully trained fighter down while the flesh is carved from his bones. No one man can do both at the same time, short of magic. And from the looks of it, he didn't lose to magic."

Iskandar listens carefully. He nods and frowns as various pieces of the puzzle are revealed. But he still doesn't see how they fit. "Flaying is a cruel and evil act," he reasons. "Even more troubling if many participated. It's no wonder that spirit lingers on. Whoever is responsible for this must be brought to justice."

"There can be no doubt of that." Seldan nods to Iskandar, steel in his tone. "I think that Malik is right. Many were involved. We must learn who did it, and what they wished to achieve, that their aims be stopped and they be brought to justice. That ghost will walk until that is done, I think." A convulsive shudder ripples through him.

GAME: Seldan rolls knowledge/religion +1: (20)+11+1: 32