A stream of bubbles emerges from beneath the canoe as a tiny creature swims out, trying to avoid the dancing lights. This waterlogged gremlin has lobster claws for hands and an almost canine face with webbed ears. It glares up at you angrily.
Arma peers over the edge and makes a face at the gremlin. "The hell..."
Arma quietly tries to get out of line of sight, drawing a dagger on principle but unable to do much with it.
Tessa hefts her crossbow, preparing to fire it as soon as the creature breaches the water.
You stand ready to attack, but the gremlin doesn't emerge from the water. Bubbles swirl around it as it focuses on gathering magical power.
"Oh, Calistra. Here goes nothing."
She steps off the dock, plunging into the water, and, her eyes strangely not affected by the saltwater, shoots the gremlin point-blank before it has time to complete its spell.
"Time to go swimming." She drops her backpack, and pulls out her trident as she jumps into the water.
Arma groans, and she, too, leaps into the water and swims down.
While Abigail stays on the dock, the rest of you dive into the water and swim down towards the gremlin. Tessa shoots it with her crossbow, but the bolt doesn't seem to hurt it at all!
The creature finishes its spell, and both Arma and Relia feel very sleepy. Then it swims towards Tessa, snapping her fingers painfuly!
Arma is barely in the water before she feels her limbs going heavy, and she passes out dead away in the water.
Tessa involuntarily gasps as the gremlin attacks her, inhaling a lungful of water. She instinctively starts to lash out- then stops, puzzled. She's breathing normally, somehow. She doesn't have time to ponder this exciting revelation, though, as Arma goes unconscious, she has seconds until she drowns. Around her hand, colors appear, distorted and strange in the saltwater, and they blast out, refracting through the ocean directly at the pugwampi, threatening to overtake his very awareness!
"Someone get Arma out of here before she drowns!" Tessa exclaims, her voice somehow understandable despite being underwater. "I'll hold off the gremlin!"
Resisting the sleep spell, Relia grabs Arma and drags her to the shore to keep her from drowning. Abigail grabs her spear and dives into the water, swimming behind Tessa. The elf tries to knock out the gremlin with a color spray, but her magic falters and has no effect on the resilient fey!
The fey shrieks as it continues to claw at Tessa, pinching her painfully!
Abigail drives her spearpoint right into the gremlin's throat and out the back of its neck. Blood fills the water as the little creep dies instantly.
When you get a chance to examine the canoe, you see that there's a wicker basket and a fishing pole inside, but nothing else of value. There's also a large hole in the bottom of the hull. The canoe seems to be of recent construction, and it was likely built on this island. Upon closer examination, Abigail notices that the hole was created from inside the canoe, not from underneath, and was punctured by a tool or weapon.
Relia shakes Arma to wake her up after she drags both of them up on the shore. "I thought leaving Tessa to fight alone was a bad idea. So in I went. We do need to be more careful. It's not like we can run to the closest cathedral to get healed or restored."
Relia will help Abigail drag the canoe out of the water.
Abigail and Relia are able to drag the canoe out of the water together.
Arma wakes with a start and gross coughing that brings up water. "Guh, what? I don't...boat? Ugh, what was that thing?" She squeezes the water out of her hair and coughs again.
"Was there any other places to look? If we've checked out everything let's start overland to the ship. They need to know something happened soon." Relia pulls a fish out of her armor and tosses it back into the water.
You have explored every area of the colony. It's time to rejoin the rest of the colonists aboard the Peregrine.
When you are ready, you head north from Talmandor's Bounty and into the wilds of the island of Ancorato. There are no trails or paths, so the going is slow, though not particularly arduous. You skirt the coast, and the vegetation isn't as dense as it becomes further inland. Most of the plant life on the island consists of evergreens. Pines and live oaks make up the majority of trees in the inland forests, with palm trees appearing near the coast. Small evergreen shrubs cover the ground along with short palmettos.
The weather is warm and humid. Insects buzz and chirp in the trees around you.
Tessa spends some time underwater, enjoying the discovery of her gills and flippers, "So I guess I can breathe underwater. That's interesting. And quite interesting. Hmmm... I wish I still had a sending for my mother." she touches her necklace absentmindedly.
Later, when they're walking through the woods, Tessa looks around,
Hmmmm.... I'm missing something here.... but what?
Arma smacks the side of her head to get the water out of her ears, and considers the environment. 'What did Anya say about navigating...'
After an hour or so, Arma comes across a bush full of wild blueberries. They would make fine components for your wand of goodberry. She also notices several signs of wild boars in the area, and can point them out to steer clear of their territory and avoid angering the ill-tempered beasts.
Relia picks her way through the undergrowth, and is very happy to be near the sea on the trip to the boat. "What happened at the colony is very odd. Why would they suddenly start fighting with each other like that?"
After distributing the berries, you continue on your way. Soon, the presence of saltmarshes along the coast forces you to deviate inland a bit. Tangled clumps of moss dangle from the sprawling branches of ancient oaks, and the smell of pine sap hangs in the air. You cross through a lightly wooded region and approach a stream running southwest to the sea.
As you draw near, though, something emerges from the water--the rotting corpse of a woman wearing leathers and gripping a handaxe. A strange nautilus clutches the corpse's head with oversized tentacles, its crimson-streaked flesh textured like the surface of some exposed, alien brain.
"Eugh!" Arma snaps her knife out of its scabbard and throws it at the undead.
Arma hurls her knife at the undead. It sinks into its rotting flesh, but doesn't seem to hurt it much.
As the corpse charges forward, Abigail braces her spear and runs it through. It falls unmoving to the ground. The nautilus withdraws its tendrils from the dead body and crawls towards the druid before lashing out with its tentacles. It hits once, wrapping around her as it tries to climb up towards her head!
Relia runs forward as the creature climbs up Abigail. "Get off her." She stabs at with her trident.
Arma grabs at the aberration with one hand and slashes at it with her knife in the other hand.
Relia stabs the incutilis with her trident, the cold iron tines cracking its hard shell.
Tessa draws her dagger and moves to try to assist, though she can't find a good opening.
Arma flanks with Relia. She grabs at the creature while she slashes it with her knife, finding a soft spot to tear at its fleshy insides.
Abigail pries the thing off of her with a surge of strength, dropping i to the ground in disgust.
The creature tries to drag its way back to the stream, but it leaves itself open to attacks. Relia impales it on her trident, and the horrid thing wriggles and dies.
Tessa sheathes her dagger, stepping back.
"It's an incutlis. To answer your question about why the land would tolerate such a thing, it wouldn't. It's an abberation- a creature that should not exist. Besides, it's not true necromancy- that requires the negative energy plane. This... thing just controls corpses like they're puppets. It is intelligent, though, which means it could have a lair nearby. Do we want to look for it?"
"There could be more, yes, but it's unlikely. However, as an intelligent creature, it might have something of value or some form of knowledge. It may well also have the bodies of former victims, discarded after being unusable. We have the potential to learn much about the local lifeforms, or about the incutlis' life itself."
Besides the corpse's soggy clothes and rusted handaxe, there is nothing else on it. Without magic, it will be impossible to identify the unfortunate woman.
There are no tracks to be found, since the creature traveled here via the waterway. It is unlikely you'll be able to locate its lair, if it had one.
"Don't get me wrong, ya, I'm always up for poking dead things, but aren't there more important things we should be doing right now?" Arma said, the first part mostly in jest. She glances at the corpse and quickly looks away from its decaying features.
With the adrenaline wearing off, Arma goes about retrieving her dagger clinically, not thinking too much about the smell of decay, and breathing through her mouth. She pulls it out of the corpse, cleans it off, and stows it away.
Relia says a prayer over the corpse. "We should bury her, but I don't think we have the time at the moment. Let's get back to the ship. We need to let them know what happened."