Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Oh no, I never said I was turning back. I'm just a little bummed that it's yet another Ghost Town... city... whatever. I want some of the stuff they have in there, too. But, you'd think whatever took down the place could have had more originality. As with the adventurers, there seems to be more dead or abandoned cities than there are cities that are still thriving."

Laucien was thoroughly enjoying this.

"But, if there weren't so many destroyed cities, there'd be less opportunity for us to beat stuff up, since the job competition would be pretty hectic. Meh, I'll never really be satisfied, will I?"

{Gonna assume, since we were sent here by the king, that we all know each other's names (and general skill set) already. We've been traveling together for a bit, I'd assume.}

Growling as he reached the top of the long flight of stairs, the green scaled bipedal lizard, as tall as a human male, clicked its clawed feet on the stone. "There, there, Scaley. It's okay. You're gonna be fine." The gnome woman, astride the fastieth, patted its head affectionately. Her clothing was white, and well tended as if by a fastidious person. There was a cloak and a red cap, but the gnome's emerald green eyes and hair were striking. Large glasses sat upon her nose, and, though perhaps your eyes were deceiving you, it looked like a blue crystal medalion almost moved on its own. Looking over everyone again, she smiled. "Come on now, guys! This is exciting! We're the first people to venture into this city for over six years! I mean, imagine what wonders we might find in a city with ties this close to the elemental plane of water! Oh, I'd love to see that."

Nodding towards the cranky Vanhi, she mutters to Var, "What crawled up her butt?"

[Gnome]"It's not a bad idea, but where would we get enough gelatin?[/gnome] Sharty chuckled.

"You all realize that the chattering will alert anything nearby to us before we could find it, and that said things will attack?" He looked back at them, staring at them with a gaze as icy as cold as a tundra. "I would suggest silence, unless it's important. Something killed those guards, and it wants us gone. That means it would have had to know about us. It could be nearby, it could have left that message days ago. For now, keep alert and silent."

That said, he'd carefully continue further into the city, checking alleyways and doorways. "We should also start with a house by house search." He turns to Eunike, looking a tad uncomfortable as always when he spoke of her power. Magic was one thing, which he had finally gotten over... psionics, however, was quite another. "Could you, you know, do anything to... uh... help keep us from getting ambushed?"

(Yes, you can use a Heal check on the blood. I will also take a Knowledge [nature] or Survival)

The cool mountain air was made only colder as the watered cooled air flowed by the Adventures. It was almost too easy to see this city in it's greatests moments. The buildings was built into the sides of the cave instead of on top of the flatted out ground. And the strangest thing was none of the buildings had doors, or any covering on them.

The place where they stood was some kind of shipping and receiving area. Half opened boxes of old pickaxes and other supplies sat along the walls. The biggest thing waiting to be moved was the blower for a forge.

The closest building was a Tavern named 'The Foaming Chicken', both Laucien and Ententre, Seen a shadow of a person pass by the window of the second floor of the tavern.

Ententre, Also seen a small humanoid with a crossbow pointed at the group, nearly 60 feet away from the top floor. Of what can only be discribed as a Guard tower. But the person quickly vanished into the shadows as quickly as, ---- blinked

Tik'tek'tok, found a footprint in the dusty on the floor, but it turned out to be her own.

"Without fire, you would freeze to death in the winter. Without fire, there would be no sun. Fire is the life giver, and all it asks in return is to consume detritus and that which is meant to return to it. But I never said to burn the city down. I only meant that we move quickly, deal with whatever ails the city, and be gone, as a flash fire cleanses a forest. Let's get this scouting errand over with."

Vanhi moves to find cover, and does her best to stealthily approach further into the city.
{hide +13, Move Silent +13, respectively. Edit: Hide 26, Move Silent 21.}