The group makes their way to the stairway quite quickly as they have a map and have less of a need to note everything that may or may not be of importance.
"Some of these bones seem fairly fresh, others appear ancient..." Iskandor mutters.
"How the hell do you know that?" Serena asks.
"I had an associate who was a forensic anthropologist, on occasion she even solved murders hundreds of years old if not older." Iskandor replies. "You tend to pick up a thing or two when you feel it could come in handy."
"So... I won't pretend to know some of those words but could you tell us what you see?" Serena asks.
"Might take me a bit if I want to be completely accurate, but I'll do my best while being quick. Just keep in mind that what I do know applies for humans and may be different for the other races." Iskandor says, quickly observing the remains without stepping onto the stairs or moving anything. Iskandor pulls out a notebook and jots down notes.
[Victim 1, Race: Dwarf? Age: ? Gender: M
COD: Blunt force trauma to upper spine?
(Note; Dwarves have less vertebrae than humans.)]
[Victim 2, Race: Elf Age: ? Gender: ?
COD: Puncture wound through the second rib
(Note; Elves, in comparison to Humans are difficult to differentiate between genders based on skeletal remains.)]
[Victim 3, Race: Neko? Age: 23? Gender: F
COD: Unknown
(Note: Many beast humans have ears in a different location to humans, thus different skull structure and tails, otherwise many are nearly indistinguishable from humans on skeletal remains only, the tail vertebrae will be labeled T1-Tx, x being total number of tail vertibrae.)]
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"Alright, looking at some of the more recent victims it seems the cause of death isn't very consistent. However it gives some clues on traps we might encounter." Iskandor informs the others. "Hikari, do you wish to continue being our strategist for the time being?" Iskandor then asks while offering the notes.
"I would be honored, however I feel you would do better than I." Hikari replies.
"Alright then, the best way not to trigger a trap is to avoid them. I only saw bodies on the stairs or those who fell off due to a trap, meaning it should be safest to scale the mountain till we reach an enterance." Iskandor says, "Any objections?"
"As much as I'd like to object I believe that is the best plan." Serena says.
"If we are to go this route we should rest at this is a really steep slope to scale." Lar suggests.
"Keep in mind though, this slope has nearly no natural footholds so it will be extremely dangerous, and We'll have to free climb it as we don't have enough rope to reach down from the top, and even if we did one of us would have to go first and carry all of the rope up..." Iskandor explains. "However, as we rest I may be able to make a chisel to make footholds."
"We don't have a forge, how would you do that?" Hikari asks.
"I don't need a forge for something as simple at this." Iskandor replies.
Throughout the night you could hear the hammering of metal and see flashes of fire for but a brief moment. By morning these sounds and flashing of light have long died down and morphed into the subtle snore of a dragonborn.
As everyone arose from their slumber they could see a patch of grass, or rather what remains of it, burned black. Iskandor soon woke and showed the fruits of his labor.
"A chisel, may not seem like much but as it is made of mithril it will do precisely what we need it to do with relative ease. With the amount of rope we have we could tie it to ourselves, however it will either make us all fall if one of us do or save someone from said fall. I shall leave it up to you." Iskandor explains.
"I'll free climb it, If someone else falls while I'm tied to them I'm all but garunteed to fall too." Hikari explains.
"I'm not confident in holding anyone but Hikari up... So I'll free climb it too." Serena adds.
"Alright I guess we'll free climb it, I'll get Fenrir, Serena, you can get the tent. Iskandor you can carve a path for us and Hikari, you got scout duty." Lar says as everyone takes their face in formation, Iskandor in front followed by Hikari, then Lar and finally Serena.
Suprisingly the climb went without incident and was fairly smooth, all things considering.
"I think I see a ledge." Iskandor says, "Hopefully it's our destination or at the very least large enough for us to rest on."
"We're almost a third of the way up, so I would hope this is it, otherwise we may have to scale the entire mountain." Serena groans.
"Hey, at least there will be hotsprings at the top." Lar reminds, this seems to invigorate everyone as they hastily, yet carefully reach the ledge.
"Looks like it really is the enterance." Iskandor mutters, "And the stairs end over there. Considering there's no bodies this far up either theres no traps or no one got this far."
"All in favor of not finding out say 'aye'" Lar announces, to which everyone agrees instantly.
"Looks like the enterance leads into a winding corridor... My guess a labyrinth." Hikari states.
"If only we had a ball of yarn... Wait! I got it, since we don't have yarn we can mark the way we go with chalk or something!" Iskandor exclaims.
"What if it's trapped?" Serena asks.
"And last I checked we didn't halve chalk." Lar adds.
"Fair point, but we are sticking together at the very least." Iskandor replies.
"Maybe I could smell a draft from the other side when we close in, and perhaps let you know if we wind up where we were based on scent." Fenrir suggests.