Grade

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

A dead person...

Well. He won't need his stuff anymore. Henri willed the corpse's pockets to unfurl, revealing some spoiled berries that contaminated the hardtack in the same pocket, a few copper coins, and a spool of bowstring. Additionally, on his belt, a small dirk. Partially rusted. He dropped it with a metallic clang. There's nothing good.
The unstrung hunting bow looks decent. He could probably fix the bow with that string, but bringing arrows is a hassle.

Arrows.
This must be one of the kidnappers... Then, the blood on the tracks... He must've offered to stay, then died after the kidnappers were long gone. No, he wouldn't be face-down if that was the case. Was he betrayed, stabbed in the back?

Henri walked towards the center of the room, willing the backpacks to release everything they held inside them, all neatly sorted on the floor. Then, he yanked upward gently at Matilda's shoulderplate with his Telekinesis. The cyan marking on it faded entirely.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

"Am I the only one who can explore this...?" Henri stared at the water-logged stairs to the lower floors. There's probably nothing to explore in there, unless the kidnappers were a certain breed of mermen... It wouldn't hurt to explore later.

He sees Cedar and Matilda convene, and chooses to merely pass by the room they were in silently. It's good that Cedar's boots don't make even a quarter of the sound that Henri's shoes with bronze soles would be making.

Right now, he'd rather climb the stairs above. He chose the closest one where he could sense the most metal objects.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Keeping up with Cedar's bear-like speeds, Henri was then caked in mud and it irritated him, slightly. Nothing that can't be fully undone, however. He began walking towards the entrance of the ruins. As he did so, steam rose up from the mud on him, drying up quickly into fine dirt which then began collapsing off of his body. It looked quite like Henri walked out of a dirt-coloured smoke cloud, and he was then fully clean again.

The amount of control it must have taken to remove every speck of dust at the same time... Training his control for decades with the thousand minuscule parts of this pocket watch is worth it. Truly, he can repair it himself without having to use Inorganic Repair.

He looked at the collapsed wall, then glanced at Cedar. This wouldn't quite do. He held out his hand and began tearing off as much brick as he could to make Cedar fit without collapsing the ceiling. At the same time, he cast Temperature Increase on Matilda's left shoulderplate that was affected by Core Spreading, not enough to burn her but just to signify that they've arrived. The cyan marking on the shoulderplate faded slightly, but it's still quite there.

He walked in, fully unable to smell anything, much less horse dung, but could at least tell that the water in the barrel is dirty and not potable. They haven't been here for far too long. He sighed. Even now, the only thing they could do is find more clues?

Invoking his Metal Sense to look for traps and anything useful in the ruins, as well as Matilda's unique armor.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Henri then headed towards the ruins at a walking pace, following from a distance Cedar who's naked and on all fours, inconspicuously posing as a bear. Well, by all accounts, he's at best part-bear, but this way he looks no different than actual bears in the wild.
Whether or not bears could actually be found in the marsh, Henri had never cared to remember.

Quite the quiet stroll. Nothing but the sounds of their gentle footsteps, the marsh insects, and the flowing lake not so far away from them. Dry footsteps even if they're in the marsh, as Henri actively rids the mud of its moisture with every step, via a combination of his telekinesis and temperature increase.

Suddenly, as they get closer, a peculiar voice starts to ring.

“...ou hear me Henri, I have followed the trail to some submerged ruins."

Matilda? Large body of water? No way... Henri smirked. She actually got to the exact place they were heading even if they took a different route? So, the kidnappers convened in there after all... Wait, she didn't rush in alone, did she? With merely the frail lanky man on his side?

Henri hurriedly skated with his oversized boots, reaching within Cedar's earshot. A steadily loudening ring of 'Cedar. Cedar.' could be heard, until Cedar turned his head towards Henri. "Cedar. Run. I can hear Matilda, she's already in there." It is quite urgent, but he's quite too chill to shout about it. It should come without saying too that no one's patrolling the entrance.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

"Alright, just roar if anything comes up. I'll follow you from a distance"

Alright. Time to sort out the items from the saddlebags, and then Cedar's items.
It's quite interesting, looking at how similar Cedar's inventory is to these kidnappers. Hand axes, knives, these... If he remembers correctly, these are called knapping tools? He himself quite never saw his need for these things used to create sharp stone tools. After all, he's able to pull a sizable supply of iron from within his own body.

Cedar... Right, Matilda did call him Cedar, didn't she? Henri shrugged, realizing that he misassumed that his name is Cedrick because he once heard that Yvonne girl call her 'Ceddy'.
That man Anderson was calling him Cedrick too, most likely because of Henri. Yet, he felt no obligation to fix this mistake. He will just let it be, as a tiny future source of hilarity.

After melting the unnecessary metal tools and throwing away the saddle bags, sackcloths, and any non-metal parts of the knapping tools; he began equipping Cedar's gear with much care. The cloak of a 9-feet-tall bear is expectedly too long for his normal human size, and so he wrapped it partway on his neck like a thick scarf. His hand axe and knife are then sheathed on the right hip. His flints, placed in the left pocket. His leather-wrapped knapping tools, attached to his left hip. His rope, slung to his right shoulder. His ball of twine...

This is quite an unusually-shaped item, this ball of twine. He reached for Cedar's barrel and attached a diagonal rod to the side of it, and hung the ball of twine onto it. He then wore the barrel on his back. It's good that they added this leather harness to it, turning it into quite a bulky backpack. Finally, his oversized boots and gloves are simply worn directly, even on top of his own shoes, and he'll just hold Cedar's shovel in the open and his big stick as a walking stick, he supposes.

Henri began to walk, following Cedar from a huge distance as he said.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Henri grabbed the map, cross-referenced it with the lake, and figured out their heading. This has to be where Young Master is kept, right? No... This is probably a mere meeting point at best. Five days removed from the incident, there's probably nothing left in it to check. It wouldn't quite hurt to look though, being this close by.
If there's any danger, he's confident in his own abilities. A bear of his size should be no slouch in combat either. Henri thinks of this, unknowing of Cedrick's age or actual combat experience.
"We should swing by it. Just us two. I don't quite feel like calling on Matilda and the others, they're far away at this point." At worst, they'd be hindrances that Henri would have to protect or struggle to coexist in battle with. At best, he'd have wasted their time for nothing, after already having agreed to split up.

Having already memorized the map due to his eidetic memory, he hands the map back to Cedrick and basically wills the items to sort themselves onto the mat that unfurled itself from previously being a saddle bag. Metals rolled on the right, and non-metals found themselves on the left. "We should sort all of this out first, though. Which one's yours, mine, or evidence. For starters," he grabs one of the small bottles of unknown powder. A potent irritant, seeing how affected Cedrick was by just a whiff of it. This should serve useful in the future, somehow.

A force of habit. Henri drank from his metal flask that he pulled from inside his jacket, remembering the lake and the possible moistness of the air near it and the eventual marsh.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Henri exhaled. It should be noted that he really does not need to breathe, but this is exasperating. Sure took Matilda her sweet time to speak up. So these arrows are special after all? Additionally, where did that map come from?

This guy... Had he not the initiative to show us that from the start?

Henri at least felt a relief that Matilda looked steeled to pursue these footprints further and instead leaving Rorthgaard to these minions, but is everyone glossing over the fact that Cedrick mentioned about the escaped horses?

Henri raised a hand. "Matilda. Let's split from here. Cedrick and I will track down the escaped horses." If it's as the man-bear says, he could talk to them and find out where they're stabled, and the horses might be saddled up with important items as well. This endeavor shouldn't be a problem with the both of them. Their speeds could easily outpace any horse.
"Mind giving Cedrick something that carries your scent? Also," Henri taps Matilda's shoulder, casting Core Spreading on her shoulderplate. A streak of cyan lightning appears briefly on it. "I'll be able to hear you when you're nearby."

A small pool of molten iron wells up from Henri's hand, preparing to drop them sparingly on the ground as breadcrumbs.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Yes... It would be easy to assume that they've been betrayed by someone from deep inside... Yet, at the same time, this is a world of magic. If they have someone like this man-bear Cedrick who Henri remembers scried the assassination attempt on Fredricus' life on the way here, or like Antigone who scries a myriad of scenarios every passing moment... Realistically, would they ever know?

Henri scratched the back of his neck, and then raised a hand to catch Anderson's attention. "Did you recover any other items? Could you please just bring all the evidence in here? We'll review it as we walk." Then, back to the other three. "Are you planning to revive a dead horse? That aside, let's follow the blood closest to the prince's scent and see how far it takes us."

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

An unusual fletching, huh... Henri pulled one of the brown-feathered arrows and placed it in his left arm after breaking it in half due to its length. He exhaled, as he metal-sensed the rest of the arrows. "These are just regular arrowheads..." Nothing traceable about them except these feathers.

Throughout this walk, he couldn't find anything else even with his metal-sense and thirty-foot perception. Anderson and the men under him must've already swept this place several times over. One could wonder what Matilda was thinking of when he recommended Henri to help in the matter of procuring evidence; he was pretty sure he submitted his application as a combatant and some sort of backup blacksmith for their equipment...

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Henri, visibly exhausted and hunched over, tapped his shoes, sizzling from the friction of skating towards this area for two straight hours to match the pace of Matilda and Solomon's horses. This man-bear with his size was expected to keep up even without a horse. Bears really are something.

He placed this newly forged iron kite shield at his back. Lacking the skill nor passion for art that he once had, it's fully undecorated, but maybe that's for the best.

He raised a hand at this opportunity to ask questions. "Are there any items left over by the Young Master? Anything that would have a scent. Cedrick," he referred to the man-bear whose name he still wrongly assumes, "how good is your sense of smell as a bear?"