Day One - Setting off

Starting stats: Exploration - 2, Combat - 5
 
Exploration cards drawn: 5 hearts, Q spades ( Find a dead body that seems safe, has a map upon them. Encounter a Medium Rook)
 
 
I had travelled for a full day, reaching the edge of what was familiar territory. There, I had camped for the night , eating the meal my grandmother had packed for me, and turning in early to ensure I was well rested for my journey into new territory the following morning.
I awoke with the sun, there was an early morning chill in the air, but the cloudless sky promised a bright and warmer day for travelling. I set off with a spring in my step, pushing down the small worm of fear at leaving behind everything I had known, and setting off alone. I chose to concentrate instead on thinking about all the interesting people I would meet on my travels, and of what it would be like if I actually managed to bring down the Dragon Rook.
 
I was lost in thought, imagining what it would be like to soar through skies, so that I nearly tripped over what I thought was a small hump in the ground. Catching myself, and looking down at the ground, I stumbled backwards in fright, this time falling on my rump on the ground. A body? who...what...? I scrambled to my feet and cautiously approached it. It was lying face down, but appeared to be a man, perhaps a hunter by his garb, or at least someone who travelled a lot. I reached down to check for a pulse, the skin was very cold, no pulse. I took a deep breath and heaved the body over onto it's back, another jolt of surprise went through me. I knew this person, not well, but enough to know his name, Timjim, he had stopped by the farm a few times over the years, to water his horse and pick up fresh feed for it. What had happened to him?
 
I check for obvious wounds, he has dried blood on his nose and mouth, but no wounds there. As I gingerly feel down his body, I get to his chest and draw back my hands quickly. His chest is almost concave, something hit him with incredible force, he was probably dead almost instantly. The front of his coat pulls back with my hands and a folded piece of parchment , falls out of the inside pocket.
 
I am reluctant to look at it at first, out of respect for the dead, but it may hold some clue as what happened to him, also my natural curiosity pokes at me. But first, what am i supposed to do with him. I can't exactly leave him here, but I have no way to carry him back to town either. Perhaps I should just bury him, and leave a marker, if I ever find someone that knew him at least I can point them there.
 
With that decision made, I take a look at the parchment at last. It's a map! , whoever drew it was quite skilled. It seemed to show a swampland, I hadn't heard anyone speak of swamplands close by. But it was well known that the world was a very big place. As I looked closer I could pick out annotations and markings, I was so engrossed in puzzling these out, it took a while for the strange thudding noise to break through.
 
I whipped my head around towards the source of the sound, and received my third and biggest shock of the day. A Rook was making it's slow and steady way towards me. It looked like someone had put legs on a section of a tower, it was about 10 foot tall, and almost as wide. Made form thick, well cut stone blocks. It's one arm, wielded what looked like a huge stone door. that definitely could have done the damage she had seen on Timjim.
 
I move back to open up some space between us, It is big, but also slow. Then I notice the frost begin to form around it's ....head? So it had ice magic too, did it? Well, two could play at that game, I begin to spin my spear around in front of me, as my own frost begins to appear. The ice bolt comes in fast, and slams into the rotating ice shield now before me. The bolt shatters, and I am pushed back a bit, but take no injury, from the ice fragments that fly past, my own shield cracks under the blow and I let it drop.
 
It takes a second or two to recover from the impact regardless, and when I look again the Rook has moved closer and is bringing it's arm back for a swing with the door shield. I can't let that thing hit me, I need to bring it down fast before I am also pulp on the ground. I run towards it and duck under the shield as it swings overhead with a whoosh. As I duck under it, I spot what I had had been hoping for. The place where it legs met its body , wasn't seamless, there was an open joint. I slammed my spear up into the gap hoping to jam it up, and not lose my spear in the process. There was a grating sound, the Rook tried to move it's legs to keep its balance with the swing. But unable to do so, its momentum carried it round, and it crashed to the ground, its leg tearing away from its body.
 
It lay still after that. Its top had split open as it hit the ground. A small sound, drew my attention as a small stone creature crawled from the broken masonry. A Rookling? defensive and ice.. Add one to exploration score