-----Everything seems calm and peaceful until the wagon clears this area after traveling for about a mile. As the plains open out before them, the travelers come across a gruesome sight. The little girl hides her face in Kazel's vest.
-----Just at the edge of the bushes and briars before them, there looks to be the slain bodies of four men. Their blood darkly stains the grass and vegetation near them.
-----The appearance of the bodies identify the men as being gruff and somewhat haggard in their living days. The bodies are clothed with padded leather armor though in spots their armor appears worn and ripped. Their bearded faces appear greasy and caked with dirt. They had carried short swords at their sides.
-----The Dread Pirate looks curiously at the corpses, then says, "These are the bandits that escaped the keep last time when I was there. Apparently they didn't get too far. I wonder how long they've been here."
-----The Dread Pirate hops off of his pony to check the corpses. While he's looking to see how long they've been there, he quickly goes through their pockets as well.
-----Seth retrieves a scented handkerchief from his sleeve and waves it in front of his nose. "The wages of war and banditry are somewhat more aromatic than one hears in the epics or tavern songs!" He carefully strums some harsh sounding songs and sings a verse, "The smells of war are not restricted to horse leather and steel, but the flowers of the field fresh and blooming from the iron scented blood spilt from the rancid and 20 day old entrails of the knight!"
-----"Mmm," he considers a while and then looks around and says, "No, it does not have the impact of the regular songs does it?" He quickly strikes up a favourite at taverns about the knight who attacks what he believes to be a sleeping dragon, but finds it to be a stinking bloated corpse and the humorous result when he pierces the body and releases the gases that cause him to faint!
-----Hearing Seth's music appears to have a very lightening effect on the current situation. Where before everyone was grimacing at the situation as the Dread Pirate commences to examine the corpses, smiles widen on faces and giggles come from various listeners.
-----At the end of the song, the little girl laughs and claps her small hands. Krord sees her and follows in with his own loud applause.
-----"Aye, not a bad tune if'n I says so meself," Runik snickers as he shakes his head with a smile. By this time, the Dread Pirate is finished with his expert observations of the deceased.
-----The Dread Pirate glances up from his examination of the corpses, "Well, they've been stabbed several times each. Perhaps Voruna's been following us. I imagine Sol and his bunch are too fastidious to keep stabbing someone once they're dead. Other than that, these corpses have been out in the weather too long fer me to really tell much about 'em. I suppose it could've been the villagers of Grute, if these bandits went lookin fer trouble thataways. The villagers could've gone overboard in stabbin some pesky bandits, then dragged the corpses outta town." Dread quickly makes a cursory observation of the surrounding ground, looking for drag marks.
-----He then hops back up on Joren and says, "Well, I'm still lookin forward to breakfast in Grute. Maybe we can find out what happened there."
-----"Well if there are any wolf tracks around then it would be Raven and friends. They do their fair share of stabbing around these parts." Kazel idly examines the corpses with her sword but taking care not to pierce them and releasing the aforementioned gases. "If we find Marast or Miss V's people around then all the better. And I've this feeling we should be back at Hearthorn first before other people try to say bad and untrue things about us."
-----The Dread Pirate ceases examining the ground and leaps to his feet, his face suddenly looking ashen in the morning light, apparently distraught at something he'd seen hidden in the grass.
-----Looking up at the others, he says, "Arrr, there be somethin very wrong here. I don't want to alarm anyone, but there be some strange tracks in these grasses that I haven't seen the like of in quite some years. I was servin as the navigator on board the Dread Pirate Pufflestuff's ship, when I last saw the like of these tracks. We were on the run from a fleet o' privateers and royal navy. After days at sea, we had exhausted every trick we knew to lose those scurvy blighters, but it was no use. We couldn't shake 'em, and we were runnin farther and farther into the uncharted waters o' the Calubrium Sea. No sailor has ever seen more treacherous waters or weather than we did on the Calubrium Sea. It was a nightmare, sudden squalls of hail would rip the sail, razor sharp reefs lurked under every shoal. And the water itself was black as pitch. Finally we ripped the underbelly o' the ship out one night and ran aground on a godsforsaken isle. At first we thought we were saved, that we were fortunate enough to have escaped from the royal navy. Our supplies were low, but there were plenty of coconuts and fish about fer eatin."