Relia looks at the paperwork. That's a lot of names. "That is interesting. It looks like not all was well in the colony. Why would they not come back after everyone else left? Maybe some of the other buildings will give us a clue. Why don't we look at the house by itself, and then work our way back north through the crop fields and houses to the palisade."
You head to the southeast edge of the outpost. Here, atop a sloping hill stands a solitary cottage built apart from the rest of the colony. A stone well has been built not far from the house’s front door. A large stone near the entrance is painted with the words “Levin Farm.”
The house has a thatched roof, a single entrance with a working door, and a few shuttered windows. Just south of the cottage is a tilled vegetable patch that grows wild from neglect.
Tessa looks around the farm, sending Azil out to look for magic as well.
If neither of them note anything of interest, she enters the house.
"Hmmm... it's a mystery, to be sure."
Neither Tessa and Azil notice anything unusual around the farm, but the ioun wyrd does detect a faint magical aura. Focusing, it empathically communicates the location to the elf--just inside the house, beneath the level of the floor.
Azil's alert of 'Success' keys Tessa to also look for magic. Spotting the one Azil had noticed, she signals to the others, "Hey, in here. Come on- there's something magical inside."
She opens the door, with her loaded crossbow in one hand, and looks for what's magical.
The interior of the house is contains only simple wooden furniture and an assortment of common household and personal items. The house is in disarray, with chairs and tables flipped over, blankets torn to shreds, and produce such as corn and melons gnawed upon and then discarded to rot on the floor. Two doors lead into additional rooms.
The magic aura seems to be coming from beneath the floor. Tessa discovers a squeaky floorboard just past the entry door, though it will take some strength to pry it up.
Arma takes a crack at it, spitting on her hands, rubbing them together, and pulls at the floorboard.
With a mighty tug, Arma pries the floorboard out of place. Concealed underneath is a magic longsword with a grip wrapped in green leather and gold wire, glowing with a pale emerald light. The workmanship and engravings on the blade and hilt are not similar to any made in the Inner Sea region.
Arma narrows her eyes. "Well, now, what do we have here?"
She picks the sword up so that she can examine it more closely, running her hand along the guard. "Wouldya look at that? If I'm not mistaken, this sword, it's of Azlanti make. I wonder, could this be why the house is torn up? Somebody was searching for this sword? It does seem strange it would be hidden under the floorboards. Maybe somebody wanting it all to themselves? Hmm."
Tessa admires the azlanti sword, "Wow. This sword is ancient. I do love the azlanti. Isn't that right, Azil?" she nudges the construct, who whirs happily, "It's magic as well. Let's see, what does it do..." her eyes change color as she studies the blade.
"Beautiful and deadly, but not in my hands; I'd be more likely to lose a finger than put it to any good use. Though, some of the scholars among the Peregrine's passengers would be very interested in this. In the meantime, should we take it and it's just dead weight, or leave it where somebody could take it?"
"It's a beautiful sword. I cannot use it, but I can carry it. I'd hate to leave it here to be found by someone else." Relia studies the gnaw marks, and the shredded blankets. I wonder if I can figure out what kind of creature destroyed this place.
Scattered among the floorboards are a few faint imprints. They are strange, starfish-shaped marks. Relia has no idea what sort of creature might make them.
The marks lead into one of the bedrooms. Inside, she sees two barrels. One is on end beneath an open window, while another stands across the room, clearly marked "ALE." A few broken bottles lie amid more debris on the floor.
There's a thudding noise outside the window, as if something had just dropped to the ground.
As Abigail runs outside to find the source of the noise, a long, rubbery capped with five spiny claws whips down from the building's roof. It grabs her around the neck, spines digging into her flesh as it strangles her!
The arm belongs to a hunched-over wretch the size of a halfling. It snarls as it chokes the druid!
Tessa runs outside, knowing something was about to happen. She furrows her brow when she sees the creature, trying to think of what it might be.
Once outside, she lets her instinct take over, raising and firing her crossbow before she's even aware of what she's doing.
Tessa identifies the creature a choker, an evil subterranean predator that strangles prey with its claws. They can move supernaturally fast and have a long reach. This one sways a bit as it throttles Abigail, and its tongue lolls from its mouth. It appears to be drunk.
Arma runs outside and pulls out her daggers. "Hold on, Abigail!" she shouts.
Relia runs out of the building, and around the corner. "Is that thing drunk?" She has her trident out, but realizes it won't be of much use with the thing on the roof.
As Arma and Relia rush outside, Tessa fires her crossbow at the choker. The bolt strikes it square in the chest, and it shrieks in pain.
Abigail tears its spiny claw from around her neck and staggers away in pain!
The choker surges into motion, clambering down from the roof to get to Tessa. It stumbles a bit before stopping ten feet away, then it whips a claw towards the elf! It grabs her by the throat and begins to strangle her!
Tessa struggles against the grip of the choker, gurgling as she tries to slip out of its crushing grasp.
Arma charges the Choker and lunges to slash at it with her dagger.
Relia moves up next to the choker and stabs at it with her trident.
Arma charges the choker, driving her blade deep into its neck. Dark blood flies, and it screams in pain. Relia moves in and impales it with her trident, finishing it off! It releases Tessa as it slumps to the ground, bloody and unmoving.
Tessa falls to her knees, gasping for air and rubbing her neck, coughing weakly as she groans, "Oh.... that hurt. Anyone have a healing spell handy? I could use one right about now. If not, can someone pass me one of those potions?"
Once she's healed, she stands up and stretches her neck, "Well that was fun. If there's nothing else here, you all ready to move on?"
Before they go, she and Azil cast one last look around for anything they might have missed.
Tessa doesn't find anything else of value here.
Abigail finds the choker's back trail. It seems it came from the north, dragging something large and heavy with it--a barrel of ale, most likely.
Arma cleans her knife. "Not only drunk, but it was bringing alcohol with it. Gods forbid we run into one that isn't blitzed." She puts her knife away. "We have three more healing potions; however, I can brew healing potions, although it will require some materials and time, I can make one minor potion over the course of a day."
The trail leads north past the houses outside of the palisade. Rows of small cottages line the crossroads of two streets formed by months of regular foot traffic. The scene is silent and still. The houses are recently built, but there is no sign of life or activity. Many of these simple homes have no proper shutters, and in some cases even lack doors. Nearby, once-cut grass has begun to regrow undisturbed. Gardens and plots of farmland behind some houses have begun to grow wild as weeds threaten to choke out the vegetables and herbs.
The trail continues back through the palisade's southern gate and to the house just west of it. It has three windows, all covered with wooden shutters, and a single door facing borthwest, which is unbarred and slightly ajar.
Simple wooden furniture is in disarray throughout this residence. Tables and chairs are knocked over and pushed aside, though none appear willfully broken. Articles of clothing and household items are scattered across the floor as if they were examined briefly and discarded. A large pallet bed is visible in a separate room through an open interior door. A third room with no windows is next to the bedroom but is completely empty.
Although the home has been ransacked, there is no evidence of foul play or personal violence. A casual search reveals any number of common domestic items, such as boots, spare cloaks hung on pegs, cookware, and plates and mugs—sundries that one might find in any dwelling. You also find a gold wedding band left sitting on a windowsill. “My dearest Livvy” is engraved on the ring’s interior.
In the bedroom, you spot a small metal chest shoved far under the bed and against the wall. It is locked.
In the empty room, you discover a few large circles on the floor where no dust has accumulated. The bare circles correspond to the size of an average wooden barrel, if set upright on end. No barrels can be found in the house, although there is a clear path to the door.
Tessa sends Azil out on a quick scan for magic, before pulling out the locked box, "Hey Arma, I've got something for you." She stands up, brushing dust off her hands, and looks around, "It's a real mystery, for sure. I only have a couple of possible explanations even forming, and nothing even close to a cohesive hypothesis. I do wonder why our friend the choker wanted to move the barrels, though. What was wrong with this house?"
Arma takes a minute while Abigail is praying to mix her last extract for the day and puts it where she can reach it easily.
At the house, she also takes a look around. "Stars, what even happened here? Aye, I'll see if I can get it open." She tries to pick the lock on the chest that was under the bed.
I'm sorry I drifted off for a minute. I've never killed anything like that before. It upset me for a moment I can heal you if you still want it."
Arms opens the lock. The small chest contains five bags, each of which holds 5 pounds of powdered silver (worth 25 gp each), four blocks of incense (worth 25 gp each), and a pouch with 100 gp worth of diamond dust. Relia recognizes these as expensive material components for bless water, augury, and restoration, respectively.
The choker's tracks end here. Any older tracks have likely been washed away by rains.
"That's a lot of supplies. This must have been the clerics or wizards home. Do we want to gather them up or leave them here? I don't want to weigh ourselves down, but the chest is now unlocked, and who knows how many other creatures are lurking about." She looks out the door. "Should we keep moving?"
Tessa looks around the building. If she doesn't notice anything, she asks the others, "Well? Ready to keep going? We can leave the stuff here or take it- I don't particularly care. But I do think we should re-lock the box if we leave it. At the very least, though, I say we take the diamond dust. It's not too heavy, and a bunch of powerful spells use it- may as well start collecting it now."
Arma whistles at the material components. "Well, that should be rather helpful." She considers it a moment. "Makes me wonder what happened to the priest who this presumably belonged to. Eugh. At any rate, while this stuff has been safe so far, I don't like to tempt fate. I can carry a little, if ya need."
Whatever may happen with carrying the supplies, Arma says, "So, 'm thinking check out the last few buildings, then meet up with the ship at that spot down the coast Ramona mentioned. Let's see, there was a house east of the palisade we could go take a look at."
"Let's head that way. Let me know if I can carry anything for you Abigail." Relia starts toward the house east of the palisade.
The name “Arkley” is carved into a wooden sign nailed next to the doorframe of this log cabin. You know that Rayland Arkley was the leader of the first group of colonists. A single, closed door faces northwest, and the structure has two wooden-shuttered windows. The architecture is otherwise the same as many of the other buildings.
The inside of the house stands in contrast to most of the other buildings in the settlement in that it is relatively organized and tidy. It contains plain wooden furniture, with simple amenities such as wall racks for weapons and armor, a modest dining table and chairs, and a sitting chair with a makeshift cushion and footstool. A separate bedroom features a wooden bed frame and pallet mattress, a boot rack, and a large unlocked chest of folded clothes and other personal items. The entire house is a study in normalcy, though the dust coating most surfaces indicates that nobody has been here for several weeks.
As you search the house, Abigail glances upward and spots the corner of a folded parchment resting on top of a crossbeam, nine feet above the floor.
You also find a silver pocket watch in the cushions of one of the chairs. Such timepieces are rare in the Inner Sea region, and this one also functions as a compass. Study of the symbols on the watch’s face indicates it is of original Azlanti design, and it is amazingly still in working order.
Additionally, you discover a traveling spellbook tucked under the mattress in the bedroom. Twenty-nine pages have been used, with twenty-one blank pages remaining. Inside the front cover is an arcane mark that reads, “Hendrake.” A spell component pouch is tied to a brass ring bound into the spine of the book.
Tessa helps out as best she can, telekinetically retrieving the note on the crossbeam, scanning the entire area for magic, and trying to decipher the spells in the spellbook. She also looks around the house for anything else that might have been missed.
She studies the watch, "Hmm.... Azlanti again. There's something we're missing, I just know. But what? What could it be?