OOC Thread

I want to proceed to the next scene (the town hall with the sheriff and the baron). There are a few hours before the meeting, so you have the time to do something else in the city, if you feel like it (I'll open another parallel thread for it if it's something that requires roleplaying). I'm assuming you allowed the goblin to go, with a message to his tribe. Let me know if you're not OK with any of the above.

I moved things forward a bit, I hope you don't mind. The baron has already left, and the Sheriff soon after, neither staying long enough to carry a conversation. But if you do want to talk with one of the other NPCs, do let me know, and I can rewind the thread, or open a parallel one.

No problem, reads well. :)

Each of you is welcome to make a skill roll to see what clues you can uncover. I believe all of you have one useful skill or another (survival, hunting, folk medicine, etc). Reminder - roll 1d20, and you need to roll below the associated attribute.

Edited post.

Unfortunately, you will only be able to follow the tracks back to the main road, and no further. There are multitude of people walking the main road every day, so the tracks has either gotten erased by now, or mixed up with all the rest. There is no need to even attempt it - all (or most) of you should know it is pointless.

The sheriff and his men aren't near by - the are walking along the other side of the main path, searching through the river's bed. You CAN ,eventually, find him, but if you do go out looking for him, I need to know what you are doing with the body first. Are you all leaving? someone stays to keep watch? carry her with you?

Party’s thoughts on all that? I feel like the Sheriff’s not going to be much help.

I suspect WhiteDwarf is correct, and going after the Sheriff will be a wild goose chase. Plus, that gives us the unpleasant choice of splitting up the party or leaving the body unattended.
To recap our situation as I understand it. it's still the middle of the night, we're doing all of this by torchlight, the Baron didn't accompany the search party, and he's still back in town.
I think our best option is to return to town with the body. What does the rest of the group think?

I tend to agree with all that.

I agree that we should take the body back to town, and then if the search party hasn't returned we can maybe go in search of them.

Taking the body back to town seems fine, but it does leave a bunch of people out there searching for something they'll never find - and maybe getting into trouble themselves. Did the Sheriff have any kind of instruction to the various search teams for what to do if someone found her? Maybe we can yell out some signal as we start heading back?

Hey, this is just like real life. No matter what we do, there's the potential for negative consequences.
Okay, so the group's conscience is to return to town with the body.
In the meantime, it's likely that the Sheriff and the mob of townspeople will have gotten themselves in trouble and will need our help, so after we get back to town, let's decide if we need to return to the forest and inform the Sheriff/townsfolk and help them out of whatever mess they're in.

makes sense

We don't need to play out what you tell the sheriff, unless there is some information you want to withhold.
Let me know how you want to proceed. The sheriff and his men will take care of the young woman's body, so you are free to do as you wish.

I'm thinknig turn in for the night, then decide on a course of action in the morning. Possibly investigating the castle, or maybe trying to pursue the murder investigation.

Agreed, at this point, the best lead we have is the castle. We could get a meal in the In's common room to see if there's more gossip.

Castle reads well.

Don't read Anton's fervor to mean I don't agree, I think we should rest and gather information before heading to the castle. :)

If you're all set to start investigating the castle, you have three options:
1. Get some information from the Scruffers, another adventuring party who scouted the area around the castle.
2. Talk with Humphrey, the representative of the Magician's Guild in Threshold.
3. Scout the area yourself (it's about a day journey from Threshold)

Let me know where you want to start, and I'll set up the next scene. That's assuming none of you have been convinced by Anton to continue the search for the murderer ;)