Perdix looks around and sees various books of simple tool making, a farmer's almanac, and books about crops, hunting, simple journals and notes about the town, like a history.
"One of the town's hunters killed a mechanical bird north of town the day before yesterday. The bird shattered from its fall, revealing a piece of paper stored within. The hunter, a decent man named Abret, brought the shattered bird and its missive to me. It's some strange script, something you see on those gadgets. I can use a spell to comprehend the words, but I feel a bit nervous around technology."
The Ealdorman hands Yvell the paper. On it is scrawled a crude map of Iadenveigh with an area called Badwater circled. On the back of the paper is Androffan.
Locals identified southern springs as the source of the area's mutations and now avoid it. Afflictions consistent with mutagenic gas poisoning, as you posited from Silver Mount expeditions. I will explore with caution; locals avoid the area and my current cover would seem noticeably out of place were I discovered there."
"Look, I want to keep this quiet for now. Don't want the town to go panicking. Could get innocent folk injured."
"Don't worry, you can count on me to keep secrets that I'm not paying attention to." Muga applies his best winning smile.
"Right." Grammanar speaks up, scanning the Androffan. "This explains some things about the local wildlife. It also suggests we should scout the springs, with caution and protective spells against radiation."
Sounding rather atypically eager "Do you have the bird? May I examine it?"
"If there is some kind of gas causing this, are there masks or something we can get so we wont be affected?" Val asks.
"Sorry, we don't have the bird anymore. Technology, had to get rid of it in case it harmed the town. Gas? What are you talking about, miss?" The old man scratches his belly, a confused expression on his face.
"Radiation," Grammanar corrects Valtyra. "It's a sky poison, local to Numeria. Can be carried in food, or in water, or the air or any of the foul gases that seep from the wrong ruins. The Clockfather used to know spells for detecting and treating it—unless someone else here does, we might be in for some danger."
Yvell nodded to Grammanar, " Yes it seems this is somewhat connected and any mention of Silver Mount is no good omen. " His eyes focused on the Ealdorman,
" Do not you worry, we will attempt to do so to bring the least upset to your community. Though to expedite this process I must know. Besides our group, who were the most recent additions to your village? As it seems this person is trying to hide, but whatever cover they currently hold makes simply leaving or investigating the area... difficult "
The half-elf paladin sighed, " Regardless it just seems as though we will have to go by whatever these dangers protect. If the Technic League is interested then it is something of Import. Grammanar do you have any knowledge on a way to defend against this 'Radiation' ? Is it very much like poison? You mentioned Spells I was not sure if you knew names. "
After the information was given Yvell would move the group either to investigate the mentioned individuals or to delve into the location of the map where the mutations are said to start.
"There was a 'troupe' of Varisians that wandered to town a week or so ago. Six of 'em. Camped out at Heddick's lumberyard. Before you jump to conclusions, you should know that their people are nomadic; travelers that are often accused of bad happenings in the towns they visit."
Gunnett moves to the table and pours himself a cup of water. "Oh, did you want some? I've already tried it; no dirty water in it."
Yvell nodded, " I understand, it will simply be a cursory search if anything. We are not public officials. As for the water.. I am.. fine. "
He turns to the party, " So you all we havent done much and the taste of failure from the last venture needs to be relieved. Check out these Varisians or this Badwater Southern Springs? "
"Currently our only way to identify a traitor is staring at them really hard and hoping they spill the beans, or searching their stuff to find incriminating material. And, personally, I think the Varisians are... what do you call it... a blue herring? No... No... That wasn't it... Anyway, if one of them wanted to check out the Springs, nobody'd bat an eye, and the message implied they couldn't go for fear of breaking cover. I bet whoever wrote it is an upstanding member of the community."
" Which is why I asked in the last few months.. I believed the thought should have been entertained. Likely the traitor would have infiltrated years in, doubly so if it were a more long lived race. Then that is a vote for then Badwater springs.. I see no reason not to go there first. "
At mention that the 'bird' was destroyed, Perdix sniffs, and then proceeds to ignore the rest of the briefing.
How could they destroy it? It could have been invaluable. Savages.
"The Bardleighs, a family of stonemasons, frequent Badwater. You can ask them if they've seen anything. If you're heading to Badwater, you should avoid the old well. Old Skelton died there, got killed by some kind of shimmering gas cloud, or something. We closed up the well with a big stone to keep whatever was down there from coming up."
Yvell smiled.. briefly, " Good to hear, we appreciate your information. Though as to keep to your previous want of reducing alarm in the village we will investigate first. "
You head north to Longbiter Lake, where Badwater is. The landscape is mostly rocky terrain with small rivulets cutting into the rock.
Badwater springs drain into a wide ravine at the base of the Brow, forming a deep, narrow lake surrounded by jumbled rock and populated by bizarrely
mutated gars and turtles.
To the northern edge is a small farm, cottage, shed and well.
Yvell surveys the scene casting heroism on himself as he moves the party towards it. " We will inform the people here that we are simply on mission from Redfang to get rid of some mutated animals or whatever. To ensure that feel comfortable. Then we check the lake out. "
He moves the party towards the small farm.
"Do you fellows run into trouble everywhere you go?" as he follows.
" It is sad to say that this is common place in my experience yes,. Fate has made my life.. ever exciting to say the least. However, there are some upsides to this... " Yvell's eyes wander a bit.
As you move up to the farm, you realize it is long abandoned. Most of it is in a sad state of repair, with cobwebs curtaining the outer walls. The well looks nearly finished, or slightly broken, with moss crawling up the sides.
Phylla trudges along and sends, "Hey, they keep talking about this strange water. Is this it? I want to drink it." She moves to a small rivulet and drinks some using her tendrils. For a moment her flesh turns black, then back to purple.
"Don't," Grammanar calls out, too late, "They said it was poison!"
" While I agree, Phylla has a different physiology as a plant-kind. I believe poison is normal for them. As they tend to be that on our realm. It can be an indicator of any hidden poison however. Phylla if you ever have the same feeling you did with that water please inform us. "
He then turns attention to the farmstead, " This must have been Old Skelton's farm. It is clearly abandoned. I had expected some form of homestead however. Let us investigate it thoroughly, if only to ensure there hasnt been any odd and recent activity. "
As such he does so, it was a careful plan and prevented people getting the drop on them unawares.
Phylla sends. "Okay. I will tell you when nothing happens to me when I drink water."
The smell of mold and dust fills the farm area. It has been long abandoned for several years. Atop the old well is a large stone.
There are some skeletons of animals neatly stripped of flesh on the ground. Unlike Jevik's farm, there is no sign of violence.
Muga idly picks a couple of stones from the ground and begins chucking them about in odd directions, almost as if trying to skip stones on water.
" Likely died of the poison those animals, I suppose we move to check the badwater surrounding area and the Ravine next. If all else fails... we'll see what is under that Rock. "
Yvell looks for anything else important (Take 20 perception) Before moving the group on.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yvell doesn't see anything else in the farm besides the rock covering the well.
"Well, at least someone had the good sense to cover the well up. Without the right spells to detect or cure radiation, though, I don't know how much good we can do here."
"Hmm, well I guess that tells me what I have to look into to expand my arcanum. "
" Something we can do later... If we find nothing else we might have to check the well "
Phylla waddles to the well and flails her tendrils in the air, happily.
"Is it strange that I can hear voices down there? Do people normally live in wells?" Phylla says in your minds.
"RIGHT, then, THAT'S new," Grammanar replies, and moves to press his ear against the well.
"How novel. In all the plays I see in Oparra, it's a dog that announces that someone is down a well. "
"Huh, might it be robots? Can you sense their minds, Phylla?"
Yvell shook his head " Phylla could never sense the minds of Robots... save for one and that was Hellion. If there is something down there I suppose we should take a look "
Yvell aims his Autograpnel. " I'm going to fire this and it should pull it off or at least help to pull it off.. it's quite strong. Phylla what are the minds thinking of down there? "
When people are clear and Phylla informs them, he fires it and retracts the line.
"That was exactly my point, if there are people talking, but Phylla can't sense them, and we know it's supposed to be poisonous down there, robots make a decent guess."
" It may longer not be poisonous.... or whoever is down there has protection against such. "
Grammanar hears nothing from the well.
"Lots of jumbled thoughts. Killing mostly." Phylla sends cheerily.
Yvell's autograpnel stabs into the stone and he begins pulling it from the well. It scrapes against the well making a loud scraping noise against the structure.
Yvell pulls still worried about the radiation that might be there, " Killing.... that does not bode well but does need to be investigated. Whatever is down there.. will either come out or know about us soon. "
As Yvell pulls the stone, a sigil appears on it and suddenly a loud explosion erupts in the area. It is nearly deafening and would have dealt some damage had anyone been around it.
After a few moments, you head to the well and look down. It looks to be a 30 foot drop, that leads to something more metal and wet.
"Well. Hmm. At least the explosion means there probably aren't flammable gasses, that's one less way to die." Muga glanced down before chucking in another small rock to sea and hear its landing.
"Right, then. Maybe the trap-spotter should go first," Grammanar announces, hooking his own grapping hook over the top of the well and lowering a rope.
"What an odd place for a metal lined hallway. " and he will wait for the rest to climb down the rope while carefully examining his location in case he needs to make a quick exit via dimension door.
Yvell's eye narrowed at the explosion, " That was clearly a trap, which means that people had prepared it to alert themselves to intruders and kill off weaker foes. This is an entrance and the sight of metal makes me believe it may be similar to other ruins. Grammanar, I will accompany you downward. Phylla time to climb down. Valtyra or anyone else who cant handle using a rope can hold onto me while I propel down. "
Yvell waits for Grammanar to start down before doing so himself, Light cast on his blade currently adorning his back. When he reached the bottom with Grammanar, Phylla and whoever else.. he gave a look around drawing his blade. " I expect company soon "
"Right, then. After me." And Grammanar attempts to scout the tunnel, moving forward and turning right at every intersection until something interesting shows up.
Muga looks around for a few moments. "Well, I'm not sure how we'll put a kettle on down here, if we're expecting company."
Yvell gritted his teeth, " Phylla's power reaches far.. we know that much from when we first met the Smilers... We would just need to stick close and power through if we meet any opposition "
Perdix will cast feather fall and jump down to follow.
"Muga you’re a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day you know that?" Val says with a wink.
When Yvell offers to carry her, Val slips her arm around his torso. "Well if you’re offering you can carry me to the bottom. My brave night." Val says, smiling seductively at Yvell.
"Aw, thanks, I was half tempted to do the same line as you up top, but I decided to just go for the easy bait instead."
Yvell still holds a reddened hue at the center of his face but stops himself from full on flustering, " .... "