TES RP: Dragonhunt

[Jboy2000000]

Strings shoot a glance at Tamira with his eyes and grabs an arrow from his quiver, nocking it into his bow. "Something in scaring away the wildlife. But the only tracks are going away from here. Are you thinking what I am thinking?"

 

8 smell, baws.

[Guest]

The surroundings are quiet as they have been, no movement or sounds other than rustling of trees, chirping of birds and buzzing of flies.

Strings

You faintly smell a strange acidic, sour smell, mixed with all too well known smell of rotten flesh. Faint, it didn't overtake your senses, it's just there. You are able to determine the smells are separate from one another.

Tamira

Rotten flesh... and sulfur. A common folklore says that the white mushroom Cairn Bolete grows on spots where someone has died. It's one of those times when folklore is right. Upon seeing the white color of the mushrooms and sensing the smell, it didn't take you long to realize what the bush hid. The source of the smell.

[Tenenza]

Tamira slowly walks forward, talking over her shoulder to Strings. "I'm thinking somethings been killing the wildlife." She encroaches into the shadow a tree, and kneels down next to a bush. "Cairn Bolete, hardly common up this north, and very rare to be out on the surface." She pulls back the branches of the bush. "And for good reason."

[Jboy2000000]

Strings watches Tamira advance forward carefully, and when she kneels down next to a bush he runs through the snow recklessly in case the rotting flesh and whatever in Oblivion she's talking about coincide, and something is still making a meal of the carcass.

[Guest]

A swarm of flies starts flying around as she moves the bush, revealing a half-decomposed face of a man. With maggots added to the mix. The smell becomes much stronger because the corpse was disturbed. If one wasn't ready, they might even be sick.

Nothing moves as Strings starts to run, he may have quickly realized that nothing dangerous was nearby, at least not apparently. However, he may have noticed a grove of dead trees nearby.

[Gollee]

Reaching the treeline, Halla drops to a crouch sweeping her gaze wide across the forest, seeing what her elf eyes see. Glancing behind her to see if Nicole is following her; she begins to head towards the highest concentration of damaged trees that she saw from above.

She attempts to carefully step through the undergrowth in an attempt to stay silent, while her bow swings around from point to point as each new sound reaches her.

[Guest]

As Halla advances through the forest quietly, the local wildlife doesn't notice her. A gang of elk as grazing peacefully far to her right, a large bull and three cows. However, depending on her heavily armored companion, that may not last.

Halla

As you approach the damaged treeline, shapes begin to form behind it. A pack of wolves, three in total, rummaging through the dirt. They have not spotted you yet.

[swat43]

sluggish, but slowly Nicole tries to follow as quietly as possible, making sure the she doesnt trip over something, and always on the look out. Having Halla within her sight helps her, but still maintains distance incase something happens, and can make a quick prepared rush towards to assist Halla. To eerie.. smirking a bit, still lies low, and moves as fast and quietly as possible to still be within sight and reach to Halla. Gotta admit.. elves are preety dang good at sneaking.. maybe should've worn something lighter... b-but the cold.. sobbing in her mind, she shakes her head and ventures forward.

Noticing the wolves, she signs to Halla showing that she can flank them to their left and get atleast two of them. Waiting patiently on Hallas decision, and keeps her eyes carefully at the wolf pack, and glances at Halla on her decision.

[Gollee]

After spotting the wolves; Halla glances back at Nicole to see if she had seen them. Catching sight of her hand gestures, Halla nods slightly, shifting her weight slightly as she draws back her bow, aiming for the throat of the largest wolf.

Her ornamented bone bow might creak as it is drawn back in one smooth action, Halla lets the fletching tickle her cheek as she prepares to loose at Nicole's charge.

[swat43]

Grinning, she slowly opens her sword from her sheathe and after a small pause keeping her eyes on the wolves... Charges, drawing her sword, at the wolves and with her might starts slashing at the first wolf close to her shouting her warcry.

[Jboy2000000]

Strings runs over to Tamira, gazing over her shoulder at whatever she found. His eyes narrow as he looks onto the the corpse. He grabs the sack of fish from his waist and stuffs his maw into the the fabric and then ties the lip behind his head to cover the smell. He pushes pass the Dunmer as he attempts to unbury the corpse and haul it over one of his shoulders. "May his soul rest in... Sovngarde? Probably a Nord..."

[Tenenza]

Tamira winces as the repugnant truth of the situation becomes apparent, standing up to provide Strings the space to grab at the corpse. "Whoever they were, gods watch over them now." She says, as she grasps for a handful of salt, tossing it over the body to scatter the maggots. Tamira takes a moment to catch her breath, clear the scent of death from her nose, and try to get a clear look at the body as Strings hoists it up.

[Guest]

Halla and Nicole

The wolves are startled as Nicole starts charging. At that moment, Halla releases her arrow. It strikes the biggest wolf just below the neck, sending it rolling and whining in pain. The other two take up defensive positions around the wounded member, but start running as Nicole screams her warcry, terrified and effectively fleeing the area. Local folklore says that the Dragonborn has decimated the local wolf population so much through the years, that the once fearsome wargs have become nothing but opportunistic scavengers.

Regardless, the wounded wolf was attempting to get up and run, but kept collapsing. Instead, it lie there, growling at Nicole, at her mercy.

Initial, quick inspection the scene would show clear signs of a dragon fight. Deep holes in the ground, reptilian footprints and a scorched area. Half-burried in the ground next to the wolf would be a half-eaten, disfigured corpse of a man.

Tamira and Strings

The corpse was easily pulled by Strings. With the decomposition, it lost its weight, enough to be lifted. As the maggots and flies scatter, the properties of the deceased are revealed. It was a nord man, styling a destroyed set of fur armor, the improvised sort typical to mountainmen and bandits. A sword sheath, decorated with an Imperial Dragon and steel trimming, was on its hip, as well as several small pouches. Its right arm was dangling uncomfortably, the bone seemingly shattered and the neck broken.

[swat43]

Seeing as the pack fled, Nicole sheathes still gives another look of the battlefield, and sheathes the sword. Instead she pulls out a dagger, runs up to the wolf and finishes the job while was limp on the ground, and whispers. "I wont let you suffer.. sleep quietly.." With that the blood splashes and her right hand is all covered by blood. while still by the dead wolf, she keeps her guard up and shows a thumbs up to Halla, that everythings fine for now. Cleans off the blood on the wolfs skin, and puts the dagger back into her sheath on her leg, and covers her nose from the stench that's coming from the corpse, and keeps her left hand on the sword handle still. Guess this was a recent attack.. The ground is barely warm.. but it sure looks like its been here... Let's see what Aela think of this. Nods to herself a bit and waits, keeping her guard up.

[Gollee]

Halla moves towards the bodies slowly, still scanning the sky and treeline. Reaching the bodies, she grimaces at the poor condition of the animals, "No good meat there, or fur." She begins to inspect the deep holes and footprints Could have flown off way" She points in the direction of the marks. "How well can dragons turn in air, like birds? Or rocks?"

[Guest]

The sky was still clean. No signs of dragon or any other threats. The place seems to be calm.

The ground is cold, but Nicole may have tricked herself due to the battle-rush and running. Likely crushed and burried by a descending dragon, the frosty ground has kept the corpse cool enough not to start seriously rotting, while various animals seemed to be picking at it for at least a week now. The scorchmarks look equally old, with several large areas likely caused by dragon-fire. The corpse itself may need a closer inspection, as it seems not to have been touched by scavengers of different type.

Many different types of tracks in the area, a lot of bipedal, shoed ones.

Halla

You inspect the damaged footprints. Judging by the movement of the dragon, and the people, there was a short fight agains the dragon, before they gave up and started running north. You cannot determine how many there were due to track decay and mixing. By the Dragon's last tracks, it acended to the direction of north-west. What looks like a broken arrow seems to have been lodged in the nearby tree. Right behind you, to the south.

 

Aela

As she walked across a field, she saw a shine of metal in the grass. She went to inspect it, pulling it off the ground. It looked like a steel sword of imperial design. Old and somewhat rusted by the look of it. She looked around, trying to find the tracks of the person that left it there. Deep footprints of someone running ended near the sword, a dozen feet to the west... except, the footprints ended there. She knelt next to the footprints and hummed amusingly, "Hmm", looking at the direction to the south the person was running from.

[Gollee]

Halla sucks air past her teeth, "Bad, this is bad. Too many men, wh' were the' here?; where are the' now? Dragon took off facing north west; other tracks leading north. Pursuit of one b' the other? Ma'be another group of hunters? Or ma'be bandits or soldiers? The' fought for a bit; the' didn't run on sight. Not townsfolk, not travellers. Wh' would soldiers be this far out of the wa' in the wilderness?" She taps her chin before standing upright quickly, moving over to inspect the body, "Bandit or soldier... Bandit or soldier... Stormcloaks wouldn't be out so far... No need to be, the' don't hunt dragons... Maybe... Imperial scout?" She rummages through the corpse's clothes, looking for identifying marks. She calls out to Nicole, "See if you can find any weapons!"

[Guest]

Halla disturbs the ground by searching the corpse, uncovering small, blood-red scales in the ground. A few of them. As she searches, some of the burried gear is uncovered. The corpse seems to be wearing mostly furs, with some steel plates, no weapon.

Halla

Being closer to the corpse, you find somewhat familiar metal parts, but no uniforms or designation, just a purse with a few pieces of gold and a small whetstone. You think to yourself that Nicole, known to be a smith and an armor, would be able to identify what style the armor is.

[swat43]

Taking another sip of her bottled flask of water, looks at Halla. "What do you think.. Shall we better get the others over here, or shall we inspect the place closer?" and as she looks around the place for any evidence or weapons that may be somewhat burried underground or flailed away from the fight. "As much as this scene is bad...-"

As she was about to finish her sentence, she stumbled upon an battleaxe.. Steel one at that.

"Well, if this helps you, i've found a battleaxe!" brushing the head of the axe, and seeing the handle being some what burnt, she passes it to Halla.

[Jboy2000000]

Strings gives the corpse a good look over, guessing first that a mace to the neck was the cause of death, but he also keeps looking for anything else that could be the cause of their death. He also yanks the pouches of their hips, opening them up and peeking inside once the body is rested against his shoulder. "In case this man wasn't a bandit, we should take them back to camp and bring them back into town later. Hopefully they don't have a family down there, but if they do..."

[Guest]

Piece of flesh, rotten blood and maggots were all over the String's clothes as he janked the corpse around.

Strings

The pouches contained gemstones and gold.

The corpse, however, still stank like hell, even though the fish bag. The faint acidic smell was gone, however, you are positive that this is not the source.

[Jboy2000000]

Strings hisses in spite and throws the corpse back down on the ground, giving a swift kick against the rotting skull. "Nevermind. Just a bandit. Probably killed within good reason, or by an animal." He stuffs the gems and gold into his own belongings. He starts sniffing and lapping his tongue at the air. "Theres something else here..." He gets down on his hands and knees, sniffing at the air as he tried to find the source of the acidic smell.

[Gollee]

Halla carefully picks up some of the scales, inspecting them closely before calling out, "How big are dragon scales? Or Argonian scales?" Looking up to see a battleaxe being proffered, she takes it and examines it for any signs of burn damage, looking for any sign that it was being held by the burnt corpse. While looking at the axe, she scoops up a handful of dirt and scales, holding them out to Nicole, "An' ideas? Might be Argonian? Or little dragon... Also! Can 'ou tell what t'pe of armour this is? Not m' specialt'"

[swat43]

As she hands the battleaxe she thinks to herself. "In imperial city.. we dont really get much of dragon quality scales, but i've heard that they're rather big enough to make top quality and sturdy parts of armour, although, you would need two scale parts from it. Father told me it's a rather hard material to adjust, due how hard it is.." thinks to herself a bit more "Argonian scales are more flexible and would rather make a nice net ,due to how elastic the material is. Good for fishing or keeping heavy luggage, like making a satchel." Nods to Hallas request on examining the parts, she leans closer to the dead body and examines it thoroughly the details and searches if it has any Imperial type of marking or design in his armor. "Imperials ussualy have a wavey design and ussualy wear steel pauldrons as swords men or officers.." talking to herself as she inspects. preety burnt up but let's see what do we have..

[Guest]

Strings

Strings removes his fish-mask and hisses from the smell of the corpse, then smells the ground, like a fucking liggerdog he is.

It's very hard for you to determine the source of the smell with the corpse so near, but it appears that the smell is not a trail, but covers the entire area instead. Your are unable to determine the direction of the source, but you feel a need to leave this area, as the corpse is slowly making you sick.

 

Nicole

The parts of the armor on the corpse seem to be Imperial, but by the looks of it, very rusted, damaged and old. Not maintained properly at all. The pieces seem to have been scavenged, rather than made as they seem to be of different sizes, while most legion armor is well-fitted together or custom built. It is very unlikely that the man is a legionary.

The axe had no indication that it was of imperial make, it was a nordic battle axe, made of iron. It was only slightly singed by the flames, as evident by the charred leather handle.

The scales themselves are of too large size to be argonian. A blood-red scales of this type is uncommon among Argonians, at least as far as you've seen. Since you've never seen a dragon up close, you are unable to determine the size of the Dragon from the scales. You try to break one in your fist, but you don't manage it. It's much lighter, but obviously stronger than steel. It doesn't even bend under the force of your fist. You are really looking forward to eventually killing this dragon and getting enough scales to make an armor.

 

Halla

The scales seem to be too big to be of argonian origin. Hard, pretty heavy for a scale, or any scale you've seen so far. You are unable to break it with your fingers.

The axe was of iron, you think, and of a design pretty common in Skyrim, one you've seen enough to recognize. It was only slightly singed by a nearby flame, as evident by the charred leather handle. Since there are no other weapons nearby, and the corpse has no sheath or a holster, it is very likely that the weapon was his.

Halla looks up at the sky, wondering.

 

You think to yourself, that it is very likely that this person was crushed by a descending dragon and dropped his axe as a result. The fact that they started running tells you that they weren't really looking for a fight, the fact that they weren't already running makes you ask yourself how effective a dragon can be when ambushing its enemies. Very effective and quiet. A terrifying thought.