[IC] To The Edge of the World...

[Marcus XVI]

The tall elf had been mostly deep in thought for the whole trip, he had occasionally glanced at their surroundings and sort of shrugged his shoulders. His right hand had rested gently on the pommel of his rapier only to move a few times to brush away few locks of hair from his face.

When they stopped on the what Tarquin could call a grave site the tall elf slightly lowered his head in a sign of respect for the dead. "Now we just have to find where the beast is hiding in." He muttered more to himself than the rest of the group.

[Fubsy]

Wimena lagged behind the group. For once, her attention was not set on her surroundings, but rather on the ground. She stopped and bent down, small fingers carefully tracing faint identions on the earth. Time and weather had worn down the tracks where they seemed unremarkable at first glance. But to Wimena, they seemed...unnatural. Wrong. Her eyes followed the trail, stopping when she saw the hill. "Constable," she called, "what do you know of that hill over there?"

[Wick]

Eve's eyes widened at Tarquin's overly chipper tone about the holy water. It wasn't much but it was better than nothing. As she looked around while the constable pointed out the spot where the man died. There was nothing out of the ordinary for such a spot. She wondered when they would get something to point them in the right direction.

[Kelewen]

"The hill?" Leofwine followed the halfling's gaze. "The shepherds like to use it as a vantage point since it offers a good view of the grazing lands."

[Fubsy]

Wimena traced ragged drag marks beside the claw tracks, nodding slowly. "So he must've taken there..." she murmured more to herself. She stood and followed the trail westward, pausing when the trees began to thicken. "What about these woods?" she asked.

[Kelewen]

"It's where we've gathered most of the timber for construction," he replied. "They are not deep woods. Not more than a few hundred yards of trees before the ground turns swampy and difficult to navigate." Seeing her hand trace something invisible to his older eyes, he asks "Did you discover something?"

[Fubsy]

Wimena nodded and headed back to the others. Her eyes were bright with determination as she gestured at the tracks. "I think I found a lead. There's a trail that leads from that hill," she pointed, "to the woods and possibly into the swamp."

[Marcus XVI]

Tarquin rolled his eyes. "A swamp, eh? Don't really like swamps to tell you the truth. Nearly drowned in one as a kid, but oh well. Guess I'll be careful." The pale elf stared towards the woods and smirked. "Well then, shall we be on our way?"

[Wick]

Eve started to walk up the hill with a purpose. Maybe it was a vantage point, they should be able to see a long distance off from the top. When she got to the top she sensed a faintness of magic. "Tarquin, Constable? There has been magic used here. She closes her eyes and takes it in and nods, "I am absolutely certain of it."

[Kelewen]

"Can't say that I like the idea of heading into a swamp either," Cedric said, frowning. "Hey, where's Eve going?"

He trotted after her, not wanting to leave her to wander off. He caught up as she reached the hill and followed her up the path worn by the shepherds.

As she made it to the top and closed her eyes, he looked down the other side. "Look at that" he pointed to where the earth had given way, leaving a hole just a few feet wide that seemed to go down into darkness. "Anyone got a torch?"

[Marcus XVI]

Tarquin was quick on Cedric's heels and glanced around, as if trying to find a source of fire, then he sighed and took a gold ring from his pocket. He calmly placed the ring on the middle finger of his right hand, squeezed his hand in to a fist and suddenly a ball of green light formed up above the beautiful emerald embedded on the ring. "No torch, but maybe this will do. A little gift from my brother. To illuminate the darkness and all that. A nifty tool in my opinion." The green light ball began hovering towards the hole as the tall elf moved his hand slightly.

[Fubsy]

Wimena went up the hill and peered at the hole. The dark, foreboding maw gaped at them, causing the halfling to shudder involuntarily. What could be inside? "Handy," she commented as she saw Tarquin's lighted ring. Taking a small rock from nearby, Wimena tossed it into the dark and listened closely for how long it took to reach the bottom.

[Garth]

"It looks pretty steep, do you think we could climb down it, Cedric?" Rockmar thought and thought before saying, "I'm going to walk around the hill and look for another hole or cave."

[Kelewen]

@Fubsy Wimena hears a dull *thud* of her rock hitting soft dirt in less than a 2 count after tossing the rock into the dark hole.

@Garth As Rockmar makes his way around the hill, now with a more discerning eye, he may notice that on the north side and the south side there are slight indentations in the hill wall near ground level and one could imagine the dirt had settled here slightly differently over a possible entrance. Of course, excavating it may not be a trivial task...

By this time, Constable Leofwine had made his way over to join the group. "By the gods! I never knew this was here! Do you think this is where the beast lives?"

"That's a nice gift," Cedric said, moving out of the way so that the green ball of light could "look". As it hovered closer to the hole, it would have to drop through nearly 5 feet of dirt tunnel before letting Tarquin see that it opened up into a room or a cave below. The walls couldn't been seen from this vantage and the floor was covered with debris from the collapse above.

[Wick]

Eve got as close to the dropoff as she could but most of the view was blocked by the men. She peaked over top of Wimena to see and was a bit perplexed by it. She saw Rockmar down below looking at the hill and the collapse from another angle. She gave up trying to see from where she was and went down the hill to see if Rockmar could see anything of interest. "Did you find anything?" She asked him.

[Garth]

Rockmar smiled as Eve came down to join him. He liked watching her walk down the hill towards him. When she joined him, he pointed at the side of the hill. "There was a tunnel or cave entrance here, once. But it's been sealed up. There is another on on the south side of the hill, almost directly across from this spot."

[Wick]

"I wonder how long it would take to dig it out so we could go inside." Eve said looking at the spot he pointed to and seeing the indentations of the doorway. She was still smelling the magic in the air and raised her hand to block the sun from her eyes so she could see better. She moved closer to the old entrance to look for clues as to what or who lived inside.

[Marcus XVI]

"Well with my years of studying bardic lore... I can deduce that what we are looking at is most definitely a cave." The tall elf stated with a little smirk and loosened his fingers so the ball of light disappeared. "Now, I suggest we find a proper entrance... I'd hate to jump down there without knowing a better exit."

[Kelewen]

@Wick @Garth Nothing, save for the occasional sheep, has disturbed the 'entrance' areas for a very long time. But judging purely from the slight indentations in the ground, the south entrance looks like it was probably a normal, human sized door or opening. While the one on the north may be twice as large. Or the dirt just settled differently... it's tough to know for sure.

@Fubsy Only a moment or two after hearing the rock land, the loose earth at the edge of the opening gives way under the halfling...

[Lunar]

June Had gone to the sheep field but she didn't find her crew mates. She wondered where they could have gone as she flew higher higher untill sh could see the whole forest. After a few moments looking around she saw them looking at what appeared to be a whole in the ground. "Man I should've done this sooner" she said to herself. Right after that one of them fall into the whole. When June saw this she pitched her body toward the group and dove controlling the gravity around her to go faster and to control herself. Getting closer by the second all sh could hear was the whistle of the wind in her ears as she was yelling, or she assumed she was yelling. Once she was close enough she scooped her her up as she was still falling into the whole.