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Egbald follows, kicking at the crumbly "stone" as he ascends. Seeing his comrades examine the altar, he decides to follow the hoofprints around the hilltop. Where do they come from? Where do they go? Do they go up on the platform, to the altar, or do they stay away from that part?

sulldawga wrote:Ender
The rogue takes a closer look at the altar without touching it. Is there any markings on it that would indicate which god it was dedicated to?

sirravd wrote:Mirwydd follows Ender, also going quietly. When he reaches the top, he inspects the altar and around it for something he might recognize. That done, he holds his hand close to the stone; if he feels nothing from doing that, he will touch the altar.

Ender approaches the alter. It is both stark and beautiful in design. It is all flat sides and hard angles and appears to be carved out of a single piece of blood red stone. It must weigh thousands of pounds, if not more. It's not until Ender gets right up to it that he notices engraved in the top surface is a long passage extolling the "smiling face of Tev", lady of the Undead.

Mirwydd then approaches and places his hand lightly on the side of the stone. It is unnaturally cold.

sulldawga wrote:Ender
Any of the tracks suggest more traffic on one side or the other? Anything unusual he can see just by looking?
He also examines the tracks and tries to determine more about the creature(s) that made them.

tibbius wrote:Egbald follows, kicking at the crumbly "stone" as he ascends. Seeing his comrades examine the altar, he decides to follow the hoofprints around the hilltop. Where do they come from? Where do they go? Do they go up on the platform, to the altar, or do they stay away from that part?

Egbald and Ender begin examining the hoof prints. They are deep, yet the ground is soft even here on the hilltop. Following them around, it seems they come from and lead to a gentler path to the top on the far side of the hill. As the two adventurers stand looking down, they notice two things. First, it seems there is a path leading into the hillside. The wreckage of a doorway lie scattered about. It's obvious from the wreckage that the doorway has been in this state for quite a long time. The second thing you observe is actually a sound. Coming from the swamp in the distance, you hear a loud snort as of from a great beast. Several of the trees in that direction begin swaying in a way that makes you think something is coming closer at a leisurely pace.

Mirwydd suggests, quietly but very urgently, that the party disappear into the trees. "If worse comes to worse," he whispers in Common, "I'll send the bugbear out to distract that thing."

"I agree with hiding," Egbald replies, and moves to do so. He adds: "I don't agree with using Dying Rabbit as a decoy. He thinks you're his friend."

Ender

The rogue finds a hiding spot that will enable him to quickly circle behind whatever pops out of the brush.

"So much the worse for him," shrugs Mirwydd to Egbald.

Brignum Mai

Mai follows the lead of her companions.

Much of the party scatters from the hillside quickly and effectively, waiting to see what is coming. For his part, Ender takes a slightly more aggressive line, getting to a spot on the treeline just in time that can just barely make out the opening into the hillside. Sill though, he only catches fleeting glimpses of the thing.

There is a low growl and a rutting sound as one of the larger trees begins shaking aggressively. As the beast passes into view, Ender sees a long 4 legged body, perhaps 8-10 feet and at least 5 or 6 feet at the shoulder. You'd guess it is all compact muscle although it is hard to tell as it is covered in hard red scales.

At that moment, there is a screech of wildlife. The large beast spins with incredible speed and lets out a barking sound at whatever made that screech. A cloud of fine dust fills the air for a moment and the beast stares at whatever disturbed it. It stays that way for a moment and then turns again and languidly makes its way into the hillside.

From where he is hiding, Ender can just make out some kind of stone object on the ground where the things attention was momentarily focused.

Ender

The rogue waits until the beast is gone and can't be heard, and then waits a couple more minutes after that.

Then he examines the stone object that drew the beast's attention.

sulldawga wrote:Ender

The rogue waits until the beast is gone and can't be heard, and then waits a couple more minutes after that.

Then he examines the stone object that drew the beast's attention.

Ender skirts along the treeline and finds a remarkably lifelike stone statue lying on its side of a bobcat. It is posed midstride and pointed away from where the beast was. The ground around it is also covered in the smooth stone-like material.

sulldawga wrote:Is it life-sized as well as life-like? How big is it?

Yes, you could imagine bobcats in this part of the world being about this size. It's about 3' long, nose to tail.

The_Wanderer wrote:It stays that way for a moment and then turns again and languidly makes its way into the hillside.

Just for clarification, it went into the hillside through the opening we found moments ago?

ybn1197 wrote:

The_Wanderer wrote:It stays that way for a moment and then turns again and languidly makes its way into the hillside.

Just for clarification, it went into the hillside through the opening we found moments ago?

Yes, for now the beast is inside the opening in the hillside.

Egbald walks over to Ender and looks at the bobcat statue. Then he hits it with his mace to see what happens.

"It seems like that lizard creature can turn things to stone," he says. "We don't have any defense to that. Let's leave it alone!"

Nymandus keeps his eyes on the cave. "Aye. We'll let the townsfolk know so they don't come wandering out this way."

Brignum Mai

"Yeah . . . I don't think we're equipped to mess with that thing . . . although, I suppose, we could spread a bunch of oil in front of its lair, then wait above for it to emerge. We light the oil and fire as many arrows at it as we can . . . ?"

Magrin Cleric

"Yes, I think that beast would be hard to deal with unless prepared, you would have to be able to hide from its gaze or refelect it away."

Int Check [4d6] = 16

"Why do you say hide from its gaze?" asked Egbald. "I heard it bark before the bobcat turned to stone."