"I sincerely doubt we'd have been able to extract anything from it anyway. As far as I can recall only the thing's creator can get the information back out, unless someone has a lot more skill at cracking the thing open than I do."
"As far as tracks go, I would tend to agree. It was up on top of that beam, so they must have some ability to walk on walls, or perhaps even outright flight. At the very least it could've been scuttling over buildings and what not, in which case there'd be no tracks to follow at all."
Calvin sighs. "Well, then let's try to keep an eye out for others then." he says, moving over to the wreckage of the spy construct and sifting through the pieces to see if there's anything left that's of value.
Among the twisted metal and broken gears, Calvin finds the shattered fragments of a gemstone. It is ruined and worthless now, though. Nothing else of value remains.
"Damn. Gem's busted." Calvin griped.
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"A gemstone, huh? I wonder if that's the recording medium for them. Either way, I stand my destroying it. We couldn't risk discovery by a potentially hostile power at work here."
"It does make me feel a greater need to get our exploring done so we can rendezvous with the ship." Gideon adds, taking a couple of minutes while he is talking to get a quick sketch of what he can remember of the small creature's appearance.
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"Let's keep moving. I don't want to stick around here longer than we need to."
The top floor and the main chamber contain little of interest. The makeshift offices have simple wooden tables, chairs, and writing equipment including stationery, ink, and quills. The northern office also has a locked wooden coffer. No key is evident.
"Hmm." Tobar gives the coffer the once-over, carefully going over the lock, the box, and the surrounding floor and furnishings.
Weyve looks over the desks. He rolls up some blank stationery and puts it into his scroll case, and grabs a quill and a couple pots of ink.
"We might need to write messages for someone, or make reports. I don't think the townsfolk need it right now."
Weyve watches as Tobar works on the chest.
Nothing in the room appears to be trapped.
Tobar delicately puts down his crossbow and produces a set of picks and tools. "Let's see if I can finesse this..." he says, as he checks the lock.
Tobar is able to unlock the box. Inside are multiple journals and logbooks. The logbooks record various types of events, such as the sea journey to Ancorato, daily work details for construction and farming, a master tool inventory, records of the daily weather, and so on. This information is mostly pedestrian in nature, but might serve as the basis of a future almanac. All of the books date back to approximately 1 month ago, whereupon the entries become sporadic and stop altogether a week later.
One logbook details daily events in the colony since landfall, and it’s the one book that contains something of particular interest. It is missing three to four pages after the last entry, as evidenced by a razor-sharp incision along the binding where the pages were carefully cut out.
Additionally, when studied with detect magic, two invisible arcane marks on the inside back cover glow. They are normal words: "plum tree."
You saw only a single plum tree in the colony, near the southern fields.
"Huh. You're pretty handy with those picks, Tobar. I've always wanted - no, needed to learn to pick locks, but it was just a skill I never picked up. I don't suppose you'd be willing to teach me what you know about it. We can hang on to that box and you can use it as a testing tool." Gideon requests.
"As far as this new lead, I would suggest that would we continue exploring the colony for now. I'd rather make sure there aren't any other creatures, constructed or natural, that could slip up behind us."
"Fair enough. Let's finish looking in these buildings. Keep your eyes out for a cellar where people may have hidden. I'm still hoping we find a survivor."
You continue on your counterclockwise circuit of the colony. The next two long, rectangular buildings are constructed entirely from planks on a wooden frame, with a pitched thatched roof. Each building has two doorframes on the side of the buildings opposite the palisade, but lacks doors. Four window frames open into either side of the long walls, a few of which have no cover and others only a canvas draped across the inside. A partial view of the interior is possible from the doorways. Inside, the floors are hard-packed earth, and along the walls are wooden bunk beds. Many of the pallet beds are covered with blankets that now gather dust. Those beds have sacks or tied bundles of clothes sitting at their feet.
Looking into the northwest building, you see another ankheg nymph rooting around under the beds. Upon noticing you, it clacks its mandibles and starts rushing towards you!
Gideon readies a shot for when the ankheg nymph is more visible and easy to hit.
Calvin raises his shield and advances down the dirt lane between beds.
"Sure," says Tobar to Gideon while opening the box. "I picked it up while working with springs and releases on crossbows. Handy skill."
~~~~~~~~~~
As the group stumbles across another ankheg nymph, Tobar wastes no time in bringing his weapon to bear again.
"Has no reason to come out," he says. "Either we gotta move the bed or kill it there."
Weyve steps back and takes aim with his crossbow, but waits until the giant insect emerges from its hiding place.
Calvin moves forward with his shield raised defensively, closely watching the ankheg. Tobar snaps a shot off, but it pings off one of the bunk beds. Gideon and Weyve hold their weapons ready.
The nymph scuttles forward under the beds, and for a brief moment it is exposed. Gideon manages a good hit, but Weyve's shot skips off its carapace. The bug chitters and rushes Calvin, trying to bite him, but its mandibles only close around the gillman's shield!
Weyve maneuvers again to try to get a decent shot, and reloads his crossbow.
"Lobster balls! The skin of these things is too tough!"
"I don't think lobsters have balls!" Calvin shouts as he takes a swing with his new magic sword at the ankheg now in his face.
Tobar reloads and fires again.
Even as the others reload, Calvin brings the Azlanti blade down on the ankheg's head. He slices through its cleanly, and the front half of its face falls one way while the rest of it falls another! Ichor oozes from its fatal wounds.
There's a shallow hole in the floor where the ankheg burrowed up into the building, but it did not leave a tunnel behind.
The bundles and bags near the beds contain clothes and mundane possessions. A thorough search uncovers a magical talisman, along with a total of 321 sp and 87 gp. You also discover a wand hidden inside a small tear in one of the mattresses. It bears the initials "U.H."
"Ha-hah! I love this sword!" Calvin exclaims, kissing the guard before wiping the blade off on a nearby mattress.
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"Well done!"
Weyve turns to Gideon after the group finds the items in the search.
"Let me see that charter again for a moment."
He looks on the list of names for a name that has the initials "U.H."
After that, Weyve tries to analyze the talisman and wand using detect magic.
Weyve finds a match on the charter: Una Hendrake. He is able to identify the wand but not the talisman.
"Hmmm... color spray. This could be useful. I will hang on to this if the rest of you don't mind? We can return it to this Una Hendrake if we can find her."
"I'm not sure what this Talisman does... let's put it on and see, shall we? Does anyone else want to try it? Or shall I?"
Calvin holds up a hand. "I seem to have some luck as a test subject." he says
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Weyve hands Calvin the talisman.
"Knock yourself out! Not literally, I mean."
Calvin puts on the talisman, but nothing seems to happen. He experiments a bit, but doesn't seem to be able to determine its purpose.
Once you are ready, you move on to the next building. This rectangular building is constructed of mud brick walls. The building has a simple door facing east, but unlike all other buildings in the colony, it lacks any windows. A heady smell of dried plants, herbs, and dried meat lingers in the air.
Inside, the ground has been dug out to a depth of 3 feet so that the floor is lower than the ground outside. A short flight of steps set with flat stones leads into this darkened area, lit only by any ambient light coming through the door. The building lacks interior walls except for a few short partitions, and four stout posts support the roof. The temperature is cool and the smell of rotted vegetables and meat is strong. Strings of garlic hang suspended from ceiling crossbeams alongside chunks of salted meat and bone. Debris and refuse is strewn across the floor between stacks of crates, boxes, and barrels against the walls.
Tobar notices that several of the barrels and containers remain sealed. However, he is also able to spot a huge number of cockroaches lurking in the gloom. They are likely to swarm anybody who tries to enter.
Gideon follows after the others as they continue exploring; after discovering the wand, Gideon points out that the spellbook was owned by the same individual; he also makes a mental note to see if he can discern the use of the talisman once he has put a little more study into the discerning of magical auras and their functioning.
When the group arrives at what appears to be some kind of pantry, he doesn't see anything of note immediately, but waits before entering until the others have had a look around themselves.
"Some sort of cold storage area? I don't like the look of those bugs. Do you know how to drive them away somehow? If not, perhaps we should skip this area."
"Hold up here," says Tobar. "Food storage, and space to salt meat and preserves. Maybe some food still usable in those barrels, but we'd have to kill those gigantic bugs first. If we can figure out a way to deal with the bugs we could maybe have ourselves some supplies for a few more days."
"Bugs? I don't see any bugs." Gideon says, and truly doesn't, until they are pointed out to him, at which point his eyes widen. "Oh my! Now that's a roach right there. I don't think my sleep spell would have any impact on such creatures... that wand might be able to do something to them, but it might ruin what's in those barrels, too."
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"The wand casts color spray, which is an illusion. So it can't hurt the materials in the barrels, but it also only works on things with brains. I doubt the roaches count."
"Do you think there's a way to lure them out of there? Roaches don't like the sunlight, so I don't think we could get them out in the daytime."
"I suppose that's a fair point. Not a brain susceptible to illusion, at the least. I would say that we could try and burn them out, but that would ruin whatever is in those barrels."
"Does anyone have any rope? Perhaps we could lasso the barrels and pull them out one at a time."
At the question, Gideon quickly produces from his backpack a 50-foot coil of silk rope. "Don't leave home without it!"
Using the rope as a lasso, you are able to drag several of the sealed containers out of the building. Agitated by the disturbance, the big roaches start swarming around the room, but they seem reluctant to emerge into the bright sunlight, staying away from the entrance.
A fragrant paste has been applied liberally to the outside of the containers--a mash of bay leaves, garlic, and catnip, all of which are natural pest repellents. Inside are copious amounts of preserved foodstuffs, which should serve the colonists well in the coming days.
There are a few shelves in the storeroom, but the angle makes it impossible to lasso the objects on them. You'll have to enter the building to search through them.
Looking at the barrels and the mash of pest-repellent stuff coating the outside of them, Gideon pauses to think for a moment, then gets an idea. "Dunno if this will work or not, but it's worth a try..." he says aloud, though mostly to himself. He first takes his length of rope and secures it around his waist, handing the other end to Weyve, Tobar, and Calvin. [b]"Pull me out if the things start to swarm me so much that I don't know which way is up."[/] he says, then he attempts to scrape the fragrant mash off of one of the barrels and apply it to the bottom and sides of his boots, then covers his hands in the stuff as well.
After he is convinced that his hands and feet are themselves quite fragrant, he goes to the storeroom, taking a slow, tentative step into the shadow of the doorway, to see the coating he gave himself of the stuff is enough to keep the vermin away.
As Gideon steps into the doorway, the ravenous horde of clacking cockroaches surges towards him like a pestilent black tide! The bit of vermin repellent doesn't seem enough to deter them, so the bard quickly steps back out into the sunlight before the swarm can reach him.
Only barely managing to get his feet back into the light before the things were upon him, Gideon releases a breath of relief, scraping the stuff off his hands on the side of the doorway and off his feet on the ground.
"Clearly that wasn't enough of the mash to keep them completely off...they're still avoiding the barrels, though. Maybe that's a more powerful repellent because there's more of it there? What if we emptied one of them and and actually got into the barrel and used it to worm our way over to the shelves? Certainly open to other plans, also. Whatever is up there would likely be helpful to our cause, but not if it means becoming roach food ourselves..."
"Lets... Just come back when we've had the chance to clear the rest. I dislike the idea of getting jumped while wiggling around in a barrel." Calvin says.
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"Sure. Not goin' anywhere," says Tobar with a chuckle. "Let's see what else we can find around here."
You move on to the next building. This mud wall building has a door facing east and one shuttered window. Above the door is a plain wooden sign that reads, “Tool House.”
The contents of this building are useful but unremarkable. Hanging on the wall from hooks and nails are an assortment of tools, such as hammers, handsaws, hatchets, machetes, trowels, and the like. Various other implements, such as makeshift ladders, barrels of tar, and shovels are stacked or otherwise arrayed about the room. Absent are tools and implements that would pertain to or be exclusively used for blacksmithing.
There is no way the original colonists could relocate successfully without taking these tools. In fact, these materials are vital to the survival of the colonists who arrived on the Peregrine—while the second wave of colonists brought some of their own tools, they made plans around these resources being available when they arrive.
A wooden box with the words "Emergency Only" carved on the lid sits on a shelf. The box has as simple lock, but the key is missing.
"Hey Tobar, more 'practice' for you." Calvin jests, nudging the box.
"Now this, I'd expect to have a trap," says Tobar. He looks over the box cautiously.
Despite his misgivings, Tobar's thorough search doesn't uncover any traps. He likewise takes his time with the lock, eventually popping it open. Inside, he finds four flasks of alchemist's fire and a folded up swarmsuit.
"I guess they had problems with the roaches before," Tobar quips as he displays the items.