<strong>The Wilds of Dra Sirdu - A Reminder</strong><br/><br/>With the sounds of battle suddenly gone, very little noise filled the air. The unfortunate arachnid made small cracklings and poppings as ice continued to spread across its frozen corpse. But the tendrils of frost were already slowing their advances, and given the pleasant warmth of the afternoon air, the creature would thaw soon. However unpleasant things might smell now, the stench would doubtless worsen as soon as the mangled monster began to putrefy. Given the unpleasant selection of flora already growing on it, some of which hadn't wilted at the chill and were still gently moving with the occasional breeze, this wouldn't take long at all.<br/><br/>Overhead a few dark shapes now wheeled lazily in the sky. Whether they were members of the group that had earlier bedeviled Eshalu, or an entirely different sort who were content to wait for others to create their carrion for them, was difficult to tell. A<em>Fair</em>look would suggest that they at least matched the crow-things in size. Unlike the squalling murder from before, however, this group of avian observers seemed content to watch from a distance. However, given the rate that plants grew locally, they were no doubt planning to visit the scene of the battle before bloodthirsty sprouts beat them to it.<br/><br/>As though more malicious (or at least questionably friendly) flying nuisances weren't enough, the sounds and movement of forest life didn't return quite as one would expect they should. A few creatures cried out once more with their chirps, warbles, squeals and squeaks, but very little of the smaller wildlife, which had braved both their presence and this odder, more dangerous section of the woods, returned to scurry and leap.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Nothing Major</div><div class="spoiler_body">I don't want to rush anything along, of course. Feel free to have your characters notice the oddity in the woods whenever's convenient/appropriate, as nothing is actually going to show up any time soon (barring truly terrible rolls). Speaking of which: seeking shelter will be a three step Challenge (p. 147 of the Core, I believe?): Athletics to clear out before anything menacing arrives, Notice to locate and secure a suitable location, and Stealth to ensure that everything's well hidden (or at least uninteresting) enough to avoid various predators or threats that might stumble onto the group. All of the challenges are at +2/Fair difficulty. Of course, Eshalu's wounds may act against her if she's the one doing the problem-solving, making things more difficult than they otherwise would be. (In this case, rather than rolling and then stating the result in your post, just get all of the rolls up, and then we'll discuss, via PMs, as necessary, how that should resolve things.)<br/><br/>Notes about Challenges: they're sort of like combat/social conflict, but with passive opposition rather than active enemies. Only one PC can roll the Overcome for each step of the challenge, and resulting boosts affecting subsequent rolls. PCs can, however, use Create Advantage to aid, but I will judge how applicable the assistance is in each instance and set the difficulty of the roll accordingly.<br/></div></div>