The streets of the well known city of Saria are completely barren, covered with wet dirt, trash, and debris from destroyed buildings and signs rather than the people that the tales of this town would have led most to expect. Large puddles of water are seen throughout as well, indicating that Saria River or Laruto Falls might have overflowed sometime recently. Buildings line the Main Street, which heads towards where a map of the city shows the bridge over Saria River leading to Saria's Town Square. But each of these houses and businesses appear just as lifeless, with boards splintering, paint chipping, and potted plants dying from lack of attention. The large oaks that cover every intersection have been torn apart, if not completely torn down, leaving dead leaves and decaying wood scattered upon the path.

Wandering through the South End of the city, eventually you find yourself looking at a single man rapping his knuckles on the door of the various buildings. Occasionally he draws back with a sharp hiss, picking at the back of his hand in a manner that leads you to believe he's gotten splintered on the wood. This action offers plenty of support for the belief that this place is as good as abandoned. As you get closer, it becomes apparent that this man is one of the Hylian Knights, and the red cape he sports along with his armor makes it seem that he's more than just a normal knight, but probably someone with a good bit of rank.

He turns around as soon as he hears you approaching, inhaling sharply and happily. Seeing the weapons that you're carrying, however, his shoulders slump once more in disappointment. "You're from the north, aren't you?" he asks simply, obviously trying to hide his saddened state of mind. He straightens up after a moment, forcing an obviously fake smile onto his face. "Brigadier Horren Veldam of the Hylian Knights, at your service my friend. There's a few more of my men wandering these streets; maybe you've run into them already?"

He turns back around, motioning to the door he's been knocking on. "I know I heard something from inside here," he says at last. "A voice or something...I'm not really sure what it was. All I know is that there's a person inside who's not opening up, no matter how hard I knock or call out." He shrugs as he looks back to you. "I've checked the outside of the building pretty well, I believe, and all the doors and windows are shut up more securely than even a Fire spell can penetrate. But I'd welcome the help...not to mention the company," he adds with a chuckle, one hand dropping to his sheathed blade. "This place is so quiet it's giving me chills... I can't help but think something's going to spring out of the ground and attack...

"Well, anyway, enough of my rambling. You wanna join me for another walkaround?" he asks calmly.

"Sure, not a problem." The goron muttered, his eyes trailing off Valens and onto the deserted town, a dreamy scape that carried his eyes over rooftops that ran naked with fallen shingles and the puddles that dotted the area.

"I tire of ridding monsters from the area in any case." He said, eyes focusing again and plastered onto Valens staunch countenance.

"I don't suppose you've actually tried digging around then, eh?" He said, squatting down as he leverages one of his sword to feel the ground beneath him, moist and sodden with the waters that had plagued this town.

"Only saying, now that you mentioned things popping up from the ground and all." He said, head arched upwards as he looks around the area. "It's not that uncommon..."

He stood up once more. "Or at least it's not that uncommon for me at least." He muttered as he scanned the area for soft soil, perhaps there'd be a hidden entrance, a basement or a storage, leaving in the wake of his search the sounds of pitter patters and thumps as he waddles around the home.

"Don't suppose you've noticed anything out of the ordinary? Ground wise, eh?

Horren manages to bark a short laugh at the Goron's query. "Figure of speech, my friend," he mutters with a grin, short lived as it is. "Although now that I think about it...I guess I really have been watching my feet a lot since I got here..." He glances about, a bit embarrassed it seems, but quickly shrugs it off as he looks back to the house.

It's a large, two story building, and although there wasn't really anything to suggest this, it just seemed to have a feeling of importance around it. Perhaps it was an illusion generated by the fact that it was the least dirty of all the houses on the block - though its white paint had still become chipped and dirtied due to lack of upkeep - or maybe there really was something to the sensation. Either way, it still looked like one mess of a place - windows on both floors boarded up tightly, doors obviously in the same situation, and nary an idea of how one might gain entry.

Horren waves his arm towards the right side of the building. "Do you want to go ahead? We can wait and see if any more of you Adventurers show up. Wouldn't mind seeing a few of the old gang, you know?" He chuckles, though it is still a bit hesitant - obviously Brigadier Veldam still isn't too keen on this ghost town-esque setting.

"Oh, I'm sure they'll find themselves around here sooner or later," Rosen said, his eyes drifting off into the arc of the horizon, the trail of his ventures buried in his wake, cemented in large foot steps in the ground. "It almost seems like wherever there's action, we find ourselves together. A little surreal for my taste."

Surely, his brethren as well as companions of a lankier breed would, no doubt, find this deserted and irksome abode. It almost wets the appetite with curiosity or maybe that was just the barren sensation of his stomach, reminded by the ghost town's relative quietness. Of course, his stomach did succumb to shouting loudly in comparison to the dusty wind that whistled by quietly.

Rosen moved to the right of the building, following the line that Horren's arm drew for him. "Keep ya posted." Rosen said, his words leaving him to snoop around under the company of his shadow. His first assumptions were to look for any cracks that seemed more weary than usual, perhaps an overly used trap door...basement door.

In fact, now that he mentions it. It'd occur to him after many a year roaming this plane to remove a pipe from his satchel. Its kindled spirits travelled up the chimney of the house, trailing upstream between cracks that carved themselves up the building.

It was common knowledge that if there was any hollow passage between him and the inside of this humble abode the smoke would travel through it. Oh yes, with lungs saturated with the gray clouds that charred his tongue, he began to chime through any cracks in the foundation or the heights from where he could stand.

It was a peculiar sight, a goron whispering chains of smoke at a house. It was a meticulous search; at first he'd kneel down and then he'd find himself stretching his height above his tippy-toes; he'd side step and start again, blowing smoke in any cracks that might smile at him. Hopefully, eventually, maybe soon, instead of smoke clouding his brow, this humble abode would take a puff of smoke from his lungs and lead him inside.

Awareness Check.

OOC: If anyone's seen NCIS before and are a fan of Tony's character, you'll all know that this trick is suuuuper cool.

A splash could be heard not far from the two, as a cloaked figure made its way down the path. As the figure advanced, it's hooded head turned upward to see the Goron and General conversing about something. The figure came to a halt when it reached the two. "General... Veldem?" The figure spoke, lowering it's hood. The figure was now easily recognizable as Dogura Shadowclaw.

"I remember seeing you around North Castle from time to time. It's not easy for me to forget a face." He smiled, and nodded to Rosen as well. "I remember your face from somewhere as well... though the time or place slips my mind." With greetings out of the way, he turned his gaze towards the house, and then skeptically back towards the other two. "Is this a stakeout?" He asked, relieved that they had no interest in where Fang was currently hiding.

"Brigadier," Horren replies with a smirk as Dogura comes walking towards him. "With Din's blessing I might one day get a generalship, but until then it's just Brigadier Horren Veldam, at your service my friend." He pauses for a moment, having also recognized the man once his face is revealed. "Let me think..." He snaps his fingers. "Ah, weren't you one of the guys who helped us out when that group of assassins invaded the castle? What were they called...Hakems? Horkyems? Hackeems? Whatever." He shrugs the matter aside; it doesn't really matter, so long as the man recognizes the event in question. Of course, there's no telling if he'll remember that little incident - it was quite a while ago.

"Is this a stakeout?"

Turning back to the house, Veldam just shrugs his shoulders. "Not entirely sure what it is at this point. The entire city's abandoned, but I could swear I heard something making noise inside this building - first signs of life we've found since our arrival in Saria. But there's something keeping the place shut up tight - I went so far as to try blasting the doorway with a Fire spell, and didn't even get scorch marks out of it." He glances off around the right side of the building, waving his hand in that direction. "A Goron just showed up and started another walk-around, if you want to join him; I'm waiting out here to see if anyone else comes along."

Around said side of the building, Rosen's meticulous search comes up fruitless [5+1 vs 15 Fail]. His little trick may be really cool, but it doesn't evidence any secret passages that might be waiting for the Goron to stumble upon. Either he needs to try something else, or move on to the next part of the building.

Dogura nodded to the man with a sudden smile. "Hakiems, if I recall, and yes, of course I remember it! Glad you recognized me. I just have a bit of disturbing information for you regarding my being here..." He pulled his hood up, and eyed the house. "I'm wanted by Ganon's soldiers, and from what I can gather, I'm wanted dead or alive. If we run into any monsters here, and they see my face, I'll have no choice but to put an end to their life, so long as they pledge allegiance to Ganon." The samurai paused, thinking about how to explain the situation. "I cheated death, and now it's out to get me, if I can put it that way. I've been meaning to buy a mask to conceal my face, but right now, this cloak is the best I've got. I'll be happy to help you inspect this house." He takes a glance at it, gathering all the info he could about it in the moment he was given.

[Awareness Check]

"Veldam, it's nice to see you're still doing well. How've the Knights been doing? Is the base still in the tunnels or have you managed to gain some ground?"

After greeting the Brigadier, Saber's eyes wander--and he nearly leaps forward at the sight of Dogura's familiar hair, but forced himself to remainin place at least until he was finished with the current conversation. This did not mean, however, that he couldn't get started on something else.

It was certainly an old building, and large. Rosen and Dogura were stalking around it...so the mercenary didn't see much of a way to be helpful. However, there was one place they couldn't cover in such a manner, and this is where Saber had his eyes set. He began scanning the wall, looking for anything he could use as foot and handholds sufficient in number to allow him to climb to the roof. [Awareness Check] [Nomadic Awareness L2]

It stemmed from the bottom of his pipe, a flower that wilted in gray pedals of smoke as the last veins of smoke disappeared into the air, sprouting into blossoming vines farther into the sky and leaving Rosen alone without anything but an empty pipe.

"Uuuuuggghh." He said as his head collapsed forwards, head thumping against the skin of the house in desperation. He stood their a few moments as he collected himself from raging at the near paper-like structure.

"Next!" He bellowed as he arched his back and began parading in circles around the house like an belligerent balloon that had swallowed too much air as it waddled around the carousel with eyes tapered in cartoon fashion at anything of any interest.

Awareness Check

Horren leans in close as Dogura raises his hood, sensing somehow that the man's next words are very important. And indeed they are - the samurai explains of his plight against Ganon and his creatures. "Well," the Brigadier says as he stands upright again, "if that's the case then this is definitely the best of places for you! You'll hear no arguments if you go about slaughtering Ganon's beasts - heck, the only complaints you'll get will come if you kill them before we get a chance to help out." He laughs, then grows a bit more serious - no, serious is a poor choice of words. As Saber walks up and gives his greeting, the man's tone becomes more...conspiratorial.

"I haven't even told my own men this yet, but... Word from above is that my group's only a scout force sent to recon this place. They don't want to send additional forces this deep into enemy territory unsupported, but if we manage to locate a strong center of resistance then entire legions will be heading our way." His eyes twinkle like stars as he thinks about it - hundreds, maybe thousands of Hylian Knights marching into the South would certainly give Ganon's forces something to think about. "My gut tells me that the people of Saria are still out there somewhere - there'd be signs of a struggle or occupation here otherwise, but it just looks like the everyone vanished. We find them and bring 'em back, the Hylian Army will be marching down South as soon as they get the report."

"Until then," he says as he turns to Saber, nodding in the nomad's direction, "our base of operations remains stuck in the North-South Pass. A bit too eerie there for my tastes... Though until we find some Southerners this place probably won't be too much better." He shifts around a bit uncomfortably, giving the pair a break from their dialogue so they can look around.

Dogura's eyes flash over the building, taking in quite a few details about the place in the process [16+9 vs. 15 Pass]. A two story house, three if you count the attic space, it looks like it was once painted a rich white color. The amount of dust and disrepair that cover it, however, indicate that the building has probably been abandoned for several months, maybe even an entire year. Every entrance on the first and second floor has been barricaded strongly with wood, metal, and judging from Brigadier Veldam's comments earlier, some sort of magical protection. Glancing around at the neighboring buildings on either side, though, Dogura would notice that none of them have half as many defensive measures; something is certainly different about this one.

Unfortunately, the samurai is the only one who makes any successful analyses. Saber doesn't see any footholds to the roof [1+4 vs. 15 Fail], possibly because he was still distracted a bit by Horren's report of possible reinfocements. And Rosen's inspections end up fruitless as well [12+1 vs. 15 Fail]; maybe it's because the Goron was too busy goofing around to actually notice anything worthwhile.

Royal Guard wrote:"Well, if that's the case then this is definitely the best of places for you! You'll hear no arguments if you go about slaughtering Ganon's beasts - heck, the only complaints you'll get will come if you kill them before we get a chance to help out."

Dogura was happy to hear that, despite the fact that it didn't look like they'd run into any trouble. As much as the group would like to avoid a fight, it could be safely assumed that Ganon's soldiers didn't want any trouble either. Aside from a few sick individuals out there, who actually liked pain? Dogura turned his eyes skyward, and smiled. Because it reminds me that I'm alive... Surely, any possible opposition wouldn't want to mess with the group, especially since a cloak for some reason symbolized hidden power in this day and age. Dogura listened to Veldam go on.

Royal Guard wrote:"I haven't even told my own men this yet, but... Word from above is that my group's only a scout force sent to recon this place. They don't want to send additional forces this deep into enemy territory unsupported, but if we manage to locate a strong center of resistance then entire legions will be heading our way."

"I hope this doesn't offend you, but I was never a big fan of the King's ideals..." Dogura wasn't typically one to bite his tongue when he had something possibly offensive to say. "Well, I'd be happy to help you all out. I was originally headed this way to pick up some necessities, but Darkin can wait for a bit. Hell, if I'm out too long, he might wind up joining us. He does worry." Dogura took another look at the house, and then at its surroundings.

Royal Guard wrote:"My gut tells me that the people of Saria are still out there somewhere - there'd be signs of a struggle or occupation here otherwise, but it just looks like the everyone vanished. We find them and bring 'em back, the Hylian Army will be marching down South as soon as they get the report. Until then, our base of operations remains stuck in the North-South Pass. A bit too eerie there for my tastes... Though until we find some Southerners this place probably won't be too much better."

"Hmmm... I understand that much of North South Pass is still unexplored, and uncharted. Not a very safe place to hole up, but then again, we haven't covered too much ground as far as the South's liberation goes. I understand that most of the work is being done by a ragtag group of adventurers driven by their own individual reasons, rather than the King's men." The samurai took a few steps to the right, and then a few steps back, looking in both directions. "If the King would only so much as... send a... surge of soldiers into the Southern..." He trailed off again and again, his eye wandering in each direction. "How come this house is the only one that's all boarded up?" He questioned out loud, taking a few steps closer to the house. "It resists spells as well?" Dogura was clearly perplexed by the building. "I may be able to fit down a chimney." He remarked, searching for any opening possible. With that, he continued around back, to get a view of the back end of the house.

[Awareness Check]

OOC: I'm stumped.

Until then," he says as he turns to Saber, nodding in the nomad's direction, "our base of operations remains stuck in the North-South Pass. A bit too eerie there for my tastes... Though until we find some Southerners this place probably won't be too much better."

"Count your blessings; at least you don't have to worry about getting your forces too spread out, and there are only two directions to be attacked from. Of course, there's always the possibility of some sort of previously unheard-of beast rolling through the tunnel and crushing everything, but the passages are being cleared as we speak, if I'm not mistaken. It's been safe so far, at least." Kicking his shoes against the ground to dislodge the dirt clods twixt his toes, the mercenary heaved a sigh. Nothing stuck out in plain view as a foothold of any sort. Perhaps it was time to check another side.

"Not to mention the fact that transporting all those soldiers and supplies across the swamp's terrain is going to be a problem." The mercenary almost joked as he paced around to another side of the building, the opposite direction of Dogura. Just before passing out of sight, he called out, "You'd think the monsters would have taken advantage of a town like this to establish their own settlement."

On the new side of the house, Saber's brown eyes roamed the side of the building. Those windows were tightly bound...wooden planks everywhere. In fact, perhaps one of those planks could serve as his foothold? It seemed highly possible, it would take some sort of masterful foresight to bother rounding the top of the planks...thank the Goddesses these monsters weren't intellectually gifted. [Awareness Check] [Nomadic Awareness L2]

Dogura's inclinations appear to be unfortunately inaccurate [3+9 vs. 15 Fail]. It actually takes a minute for him to even find the chimney of the building; it's so small and inconspicuous that it's difficult to locate. Furthermore, it looks like the openings to it are so small that even a Fairy would be unable to fit inside it. That option appears closed to them.

Saber's inspection, on the other hand, leads to a very interesting discovery [14+4 vs. 15 Pass]. Going around the west side of the building, he glances all over the wall, trying to find some way to climb up the wood. Unfortunately, that doesn't look like it will work so well - the wood boarding up the doorways has been hammered in so tightly that it's actually pressing into the walls, giving very little space for them to use as leverage for pulling themselves up.

What he does notice, though, as he gazes up and down the wall, is a window to the attic - and this one has no boards covering it. It's of a relatively small size, but not so much that it couldn't be passed through by an average weight person. It's a good twenty-five to thirty feet in the air, though; impossible for a normal person to reach.

However...as he looks around further, Saber will notice a similar window in the building right next door to this one. The space between the houses doesn't appear too great, either; it actually looks like it'd be a simple task to jump from the neighbor's window and reach this building's.

"Brigadier, perhaps if we had some more equipment, like rope o--"

The words caught in the mercenary's throat. All the boards, all the tight passages and the disappearing acts, and there before him was an opening, clear as day. How had this not been found before?

"Br--Brigadier! To the west side, quickly! I've found something!"

Looking from building to building, the mercenary began taking everything in, the information flowing through his brain and out of his mouth. "The window isn't more than a couple feet from that window, so all we've got to do is get inside that hou--"

Blink.

Blink blink.

"Damn."

It seemed like the age-old conundrum, repeated yet again. Two households, both alike in dignity--halting the adventurer's path. Of course, he could attempt to break into the other house; and so he began to look over the neighboring house, searching the walls to see if it was somehow easier to penetrate than this godly manorhouse he had previously been searching.

And then it clicked.

Reaching into his sack, the mercenary removed an object. It always helped to splurge on useful gadgets instead of wasteful things like changes of clothes. Grabbing the item in his hands, he began pulling, extending the ladder he had bought in the pass to its fullest length. Then, with effort, he grabbed the lengthy item and pushed up one end, swinging it around to settle next to the window. Hopefully, it would reach.

Sabertache wrote:"Br--Brigadier! To the west side, quickly! I've found something!"

Dogura hurried to the side of the house. He himself hadn't been called out to, but the fact that Saber had found something was enough to draw his attention. As he made his way to Saber's position, he followed the mercenary's eyes upward to the attic. It was true! The attic was unguarded! Before the samurai could express that he could reach such an altitude with relative ease, Saber was already extending a ladder to climb upward. The samurai couldn't help but smile as he placed his hands on his hips. "If there's something I'll say about you right now- you're never caught unprepared."

He watched Saber awkwardly adjust the ladder to the house. As easily as it would be for Dogura himself to leap onto the roof, he really hoped that the ladder would reach. If the ladder wasn't long enough to reach, then Dogura would accompany the men into the other seemingly abandoned house. Who knew what dangers awaited them- and as stated so many time before, there was safety in numbers. As many times as this had been said over the course of history, someone had apparently never told King Harkanian.