"I'll be happy to help, Kip." Victrix shrugs.
"Excellent. Oh hi Ema! Hi Perrell! Are all of you coming to dinner? I think I have just enough for the four of you, plus Simon and me of course. I did some diving earlier today and I found some delicious looking crabs out in the bay. Their snippers are longer than I'm used to, but they probably still taste good."
"Teehee, look at that Perrell, Vici is half naked."
"Oh, my! So she is," Perrell says in surprise. She quickly averts her eyes to try to preserve a bit of the barbarian's decency.
---
"Antona, why are you smiling like that... like you're a little kid and found a way to get to the cookies?"
"Cookies!" Antona bursts into a fresh set of giggles. "I think I just found a new nickname for you, Vic!"
Looking at Kip Ema said, "I'm up for it." She looked at Perrell, "How about you luv? Are you interested in dinner?" She offered her hand to her friend and waited to see what she would say.
"Sure, that sounds lovely. Thank you, Kip," Perrell says. Her fingers find Ema's and she gives the arcanist a shy smile.
"...'Cookies'?" Victrix looks over at Antona and blushes a little. "That's not exactly one that inspires awe..."
"Aw, don't get embarrassed, Cookies! I'm plenty awestruck by you already." Antona smiles. "Come on, let's get you dressed before dinner."
"Oh, all right." Victrix leads Antona inside the house so she can change into something decent.
"But just so you know, you're the only one allowed to call me that."
"Hooray!" Kip exclaimed and snatched up his hat, along with a disgruntled Gerald. He quickly hopped about the kitchen, dragging out pots, climbing the walls up to the upper shelves for spices, conjuring water when he realized he had forgotten to actually fill the pots.
A while later, dinner was served: "Steamed long-claw crab, brown bread and uh... hmm... havel." Kip eventually said, pointing to slices of a white and light purple root vegetable. "I found it over at the edge of the forest and I've never seen it before so I didn't know what to call it, but it tastes kind of like a nutty banana. Have a little!"
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Much later that night, after dinner has been eaten and cleared away, Simon comes home from the lab looking a bit wan and clearly distracted.
He has obviously not been eating well or taking much care of himself.
Finding Victrix, he hands her a pot of Alchemical Grease.
"Here. I made this for you.
We keep dealing with things that like to grab us. Wipe this on all over and it will make you much harder to grab for a few hours until it wears off."
He sets down two more pots for Kip and Ema without comment. He then returns the Chronicles to their customary shelf and starts heading for his room.
After dinner, Victrix takes the pot of alchemical grease Simon offers her.
She understands what it's supposed to be used for... but, well, that's not the first place where her mind goes when she thinks of how to best use it.
And, he looks bloody exhausted. I'll ask him how everything's going in the morning.
The four women sit down with Kip and partake of his cooking. It's quite tasty, esepcially the "havel," and you all enjoy an evening of pleasant conversation. Afterwards, Antona and Perrell bid their farewells and return to their homes.
Ten relatively quiet days go by as the colonists settle into a steady routine. The farms are well established, and hunters and fishermen bring in fresh meat for meals. Lyra Heatherly continues to scout the surrounding wilderness, bringing back maps that Perrell Beys insists on "correcting," leading to numerous disputes between the two. Silas' spirit acts out every now and then, giving Fathers Eamon and Kurvis a headache trying to keep his rage in check. Despite this, everybody seems to be getting along well and working together.
Lyra has asked you to accompany her on her latest scouting mission north of Talmandor's Bounty, near the caves where you fought the grindylows. It is late afternoon, and you are walking along the beach on your way back to the colony, when a trio of creatures emerge from the surf. These hunchbacked, green-skinned humanoids have wide, frog-like heads but mouths more akin to that of a toothy fish. They brandish their tridents and gurgle a challenge as they move towards you!
The dinner was good and Ema was pleased at how well it went. When everything was done for the evening. The next days passed in a rather boring state, not that she was complaining as the peace was rather nice, and she spent it helping Perrell when she had map corrections and studying some of the chronicles. Occasionally she went and spent an evening, and night, with the blacksmith but things were quiet.
They finally went out with Lyra to scout near the caves where they fought the grindylows and found the strange creatures emerge from the surface. Ema looked at them and said, "I know these things, somehow, I mean what they are, but the details won't come to me. I know what their Masters tend to be though," her face twisted with hatred as she spat out, "Aboleths." How she knew all this she couldn't say, she'd never studied them, but shrugged it off and started speaking in a strange, foul sounding language that had hints of something...other.
The creatures simply snarl and continue to advance, ignoring Ema's question.
Ema glared at them and spoke again in the same language.
With that she began to open another gate. The sigils that appeared more complex than her previous gates, and leaping from it was a bird shaped mass of clouds and electricity the surged through the air at one of the creatures.
The lead skum bares its sharp teeth and replies to Simon.
The skum refuse to entertain further conversation, lunging forward with their tridents!
Before the skum get close, Ema summons a lightning elemental in front of them. It slams the lead creature zapping it with electricity!
Howling with pain, the skum retaliates, stabbing the elemental with its trident and biting it. The second skum finishes off the elemental with a quick thrust of its trident, sending back to its home plane, then it moves into melee range. The third moves up alongside it and jabs at Victrix, but fails to hit.
Victrix guffaws when she hears that the skum want to take them prisoner.
"Oh, you're bloody adorable, you are." She twirls her spear and stabs at the one that just tried to poke her!
Kip slipped out from behind Victrix and smiled. Suddenly a bright red tongue shot out towards the trident of Simon's target.
"Surprise! I've been practicing!
Wmma was shocked to see her elemental go down so quickly. She admitted to herself that it was a small one, but still. Rather than summon another just now she cast another spell, this time targeting the still distant skum, and a shadowy anchor seemed to attach itself to the creature's shadow.
Simon wraps his whip around one skum's legs and yanks it off its feet. Victrix stabs the other one, badly wounding it. Lyra tries to hit it with a sling bullet, but her aim is way off. Kip grabs its trident with his sticky tongue, yanking it out of his hands. Meanwhile, Ema traps the far skum's shadow, preventing it from moving closer.
The skum struggles against the spell, managing to break its hold. The prone skum stands and jabs at Victrix, but she parries its strike. The other one tears at her with teeth and claws, managing to hit once with a raking strike,
After stabbing at the prone skum, Victrix turns her spear on the wounded one again!
The skum didn't seem impeded at all by the loss of weapon, so Kip decided to try to make it harder to use the claws.
,
Lyra manages to hit with her sling this time, bashing the skum Victrix wounded before. It wobbles unsteadily before falling to the sand. "Ha! Got 'im!" the half-elf cheers.
Victrix stabbed the second skum as it climbed to its feet, and now she impales it again, driving her spear point deep into its chest. It dies instantly.
Simon and Kip move over to the last skum, the half-orc tripping it and the grippli blasting it with a torrent of water that shoves it away!
Seeing that the fight was nearly over with, the last skum in bad shape, she decided to wait it out and see how things developed.
Snarling, the last skum gets to its feet and hurls its trident at Simon! The tines stab into the half-orc's belly.
The skum seems disinclined to acquiesce to Simon's request, stalking forward with fangs bared.
Kip dropped the heavy stolen trident and zipped forward. His rapier slashed out suddenly.
"Nothing can stand before our might!" Kip cried, though his flashy sword play seemed more bravado than actually useful martial prowess.
Victrix strides up to put the slimy beast out of its misery.
Victrix moves past where Simon stands ready and stabs the skum, critically wounding it. Kip hops over and delivers a light stab with his rapier, right in the dangly bits! The skum keels over, bleeding but still alive for now.
One of the skum carries a map inscribed on a piece of whaleskin. The map reveals the northwestern contours of the island of Ancorato, with a few terrain landmarks and a symbol that resembles a tower. This symbol is also accompanied by another strange, curling glyph.
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Simon looks at the Skum and sighs, shaking his head.
"I don't believe that they will talk without torture. Maybe not even then.
You would think that not being able to reproduce on their own that they would have more respect for their individual lives.
Ah, well, I don't think I have the stomach for torture. They might be responsible for the disappearance of the previous settlers, but we can't be certain unless we find their lair.
Perhaps this map leads the way?"
Looking at the map, Simon seems to recall a reference to a crystal monument and also an observatory. Could this tower be one of those? Having been studying the Chronicles religiously, he attempts to recall whatever he might know of the tower and this glyph.
+2 if it deals with Azlant.
Or, perhaps these symbols have some meaning related to the language of Ancient Azlant?
+2 if it deals with Azlant
Simon can't recall anything about the tower. The glyph is definitely not Azlanti, nor is it in any language that the half-orc recognizes.
Lyra shakes her head. "I haven't been that far inland yet. Looks like it's about seven or eight miles from here. It will be dark before you'll be able to reach it tonight. If you're going to go there, you might want to wait until morning before setting out."
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Simon rubs his beard while thinking.
"We should follow up on any lead, I think. Waiting till tomorrow is probably a good idea. We still need to accomplish your task today anyways.
Maybe Ema can ask Carver and Perrell if they know anything about these symbols as well."
Simon goes over to where the Skum came from and will try to see if thw tracks are followable.
"Lyra, you have some skill in tracking, right? Do you think you might be able to track the Skum back to their lair?"
Lyra blinks at Simon as he looks at the footprints leading from the surf up onto the beach. "You mean, track them through the ocean? I'm good, sweetheart, but not that good!"
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Simon turns a bit red with embarrassment.
"Oh, well, I thought maybe if they walked along the bottom, they might... and then we could... bottle of air... or.... something, and yes you are very skilled with um.... tracking...."
Trailing off, Simon begins looking around for an escape route.
"Shall we continue on to your destination, then?"
"Right--let's get a move on. Pretty sure these skum aren't gonna be inclined to say anything even if we try to beat it outta them."
After the fight with the skum, Lyra's mapmaking mission proves to be fairly mundane. You don't discover much of interest in the small section of forest you survey, and soon you find yourselves back in Talmandor's Bounty conferring with Ramona, Perrell, and Carver. None of the three are able to decipher the rune on the map, so Ramona calls for Alba Divenvaar. The alchemist whips up an extract of comprehend languages and passes it to Ramona, who imbibes it and looks at the map again.
"I still don't know what language it is, but I can understand the rune now--'Transport prisoners here.'" She looks up at the lot of you. "This doesn't bode well. I want you to follow the map and find out what's happening at this tower as soon as possible."