The New Remnant

Stee nods "I agree with you Aizashi. Back and forth is getting us no where."

"There nothing up here and down is the only way. We might have explored half the level below us."

Blornvid takes a break from watching the orcs to see what the others are doing. He hears what Aizashi has to say and nods. "You want to know why he was stabbed to death. Figuring out who did it, could explain the why. If it was a beast, it would've eaten him. If it was a rival, why not take that staff you found? If it was a guardian for the fountain, why leave the body here? As a warning?

"If you've searched his body and this room and have not found any other clues, then it may be a mystery we can not solve here and now. We will have to find the answers." He smirks and gives a nod towards Cords. "Perhaps, we need to confront the cackler down below."

A few clarifications:

- The orc was not stabbed to death. The holes are round, as if caused by a head-less arrow. They were not caused by arrows, blades, or spears. Based on his experience around Skeeve, Blornvid is pretty confident these are made by magic force attacks.

- The staff is well constructed and likely has some ceremonial purpose, but it isn't magic. The dagger wasn't magic, either.

- You have not fully searched the orc. Only his weapons were removed. He was not searched after the revival failed. Elyse did detect some magic on the orc's person, but no one has followed up on that, either.

- Your current mysteries are: the shuffling and cackling on the floor below, finding the small golden sword token, and what the orcs are up to. Also, there is a basement you haven't checked yet.

Keeping an ear open to the exchange on what to do next, Elyse will explore the Shaman further and retrieve anything she believes is of value or has some magical property. The later she will share with the other magic sensitive party members. But not keeping anything secret.

Oliver squats next to the orc, and checks its temperatute to roughly estimate how long ago it died. He also tries to find out where the orc was standing when it received the fatal blow, based on the position of its feet.

The orc died within the last day or so. It isn't spring fresh or anything, but it hasn't had much of a chance to start rotting. Looking around, and being deliberate in your search, you can see that he probably came up the stairs opposite the ones you used. He likely was mortally wounded, but was still able to retreat to the top floor, where he expired.

Elyse searches the orcs body and sees that he is dressed in ceremonial robes for some infernal power. However, the ceremonial gear (the robes, staff, and unholy symbol) are not magically imbued. However, you find three interesting things. First, he has a coin purse containing 59 gp, a magic scroll, and, much to your surprise, a small golden sword! As with the other token, it seems to "want" to be returned to its pedestal.

"Let's return the golden sword."

"Aye. One piece of the puzzle that is this place."

OK, taking the gold sword down to the broken altar is a great idea. However, your on the fourth floor, and the altar is all the way down on the first floor. Plus, you can be sure that the cackling and shuffling have stopped. So, when going down:
- Which stairs are you going to use: the one you came up on, or the one on the opposite side?
- Which stairs will you use to get to the next floor (three -> two and two -> one)?
- If you have to fight on the third floor, is it total, or are you just trying to get by? (Assuming that is what you are confronted with.)

Or, if you want to approach this differently, that can work, too!

Stee isn't one for running so he is up for clearing this building so the group has no worries about what might come at them."Let's go hunt down this cackler and be done with it."

"A better plan would be to lead it somehow to the Orcs and let them deal with it." Cords isn't thrilled with doing mortal combat with the crackler.

"Right now. Let's hope we don't have to deal with passing near it to return the golden sword."

But if they for what ever reason don't fight each other, we might have to fight 2 foes at once. I think we ought to deal with the problem here before returning the sword.

And we didn't actually see what was making the cackling and shuffling noises. I vote we take care of that first, then explore the rest of that floor, then the sword can be returned when we are done.

"Alright then. Let's get to it."

Simple Cords lets someone else lead off for hunting the 'Crackler'. He has no interest in this.