Luminos studies the magic circle. It seems a teleportation circle as Amara Li said. You would say is a well designed one, and protected with divination shields. You notice the arcane words in eight different places resembling the directions in the style of the Tian Xia school of magic. This is different from the Western style of Golarion, where the arcane words are reserved for only 4 points and different glyphs are chosen to signify direction.
As you all step inside the circle, an arcane ritual starts. Amara Li asks you to give hands to each other, while her servants start chanting. Suddenly, the air becomes dense and the room undraws itself in front of your eyes. The walls start to spin around and you can only see the air, clouds and stars, you feel a salty breeze and hear the waves of the sea. All of a sudden the terrible spinning stops and you feel your feet landed somewhere else. Sand. You are in a beach. As you look all around you can only see water in the horizon, and a mountain in the interior of what it can only be an island.
Amara Li looks at you and says with a smile in her face “We are now in a small volcanic island at the northern end of the Minatan Archipelago. Our enemies will never find us here. If you still feel dizzy we can rest a bit, otherwise I would like you to guard me to the meeting point.” She makes a reverence to you and starts walking up the mountain to the center of the island.
Close to you, a black stone pier juts out from the beach, though years of pounding surf and use make it impossible to discern whether it was magic or skilled hands that constructed the pier. Igneous black sand peppered with chunks of dark gray rock makes up the beach.
The environment is quite other than the sea waves, but the mist over the surrounding hills, and the thin rain falling all around the island, contributes to a tense feeling.
Further up the hill, the landscape is filled with strange shapes eroded from the charcoal-colored stone. Wild basalt beasts, bizarre pumice chimneys, igneous archways, and twisted stone snakes line the winding milelong path that crawls up the steep hillside. The black tiles of the lighthouses’s rooftop is just barely visible between two of the more serpentine stone menhirs. A light mist dampens the docks and darkens the stone to a glossy black.
There is no one on sight, but that does not mean too much, as the light rain makes difficult to see things farther away than 50 feet, and almost impossible farther than 100 feet.
The oriental woman walks quick over the soaked sand, leaving very thin steps in her way up the hill. She stops a moment as to look at you then says “Camo’n we don’t have the whole day sirs. The meeting is in two hours.”
"The manor is not far from here. Perhaps a 5 or 10 minutes walk." Amara answers with a reverence and continues walking up with her servants to both sides. You almost cannot see her feet under her dress as she walks.
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"As we are a bit outside of listening ears now, mylady, are there any... special commands or requests?" Looking around the unfamiliar land the samurai is unable to relax. Even escorting a woman with two servants, he is not sure that this area is particulary safe.
Tugging his jingsa a bit lower he fingers his chin, checking the smoothness of his last shave.
Amara Li guides you through the hills towards the northern part of the misty island.
"Please, be polite and respectful with the Way of the Kirin, as for the rest I leave it to you to decide what specific actions are required for our protection. You are all our bodyguard here, so do whatever is needed in order to ensure no one disturbs us or places in danger the meeting or our physical integrity. I leave it to you as what exact actions are needed as I will be busy with the meeting preparations."
After some minutes walking up the hills, Amara Li points out a construction looming over a cliff. "There!"
Among the mist and the rain, you can see a lighthouse towering above a two-story house. Both structures are made primarily of the local soot-colored basalt. The lighthouse appears to be intact, but the manor has fared less well—its windows lack screens and its roof sags, suggest it has suffered badly from decades of neglect. These structures perch at the edge of a cliff, with the north-facing side of the house supported by tall stilts anchored deep into the cliff.
As you approach the structure, Amara Li starts explaining you the story of the house "The Way of the Kirin acquired this island as a part of a deal for military aid, though in following the local standards, the exchange was presented as an exchange of gifts rather than as a formal contract. Rocky and barren, the island has little to offer to the average Minatan, but it provided an important refuge and way station for the Way of the Kirin. The Iko family continued to foster good relations with the island’s neighbors even after the collapse of Lung Wa, and as a result the inhabitants of the other islands in the vicinity have left it alone."
@Luminos & @Peck: You recall some stories, but they are more or less what Amara has already stated. Peck, you also know that the mist and rain in here will probably not go away in days.
@Jules: You can definitely set traps in the way up the hill or other parts of the island, including the house surroundings. When you go around the house you see the house is constructed just over the cliff. Big windows open to it with a magnificent view of the sea. The cliff seems considerably difficult to climb. You spend 5 minutes doing this.
You can also take 10 minutes to try finding a good hiding place with a survival check.
@Aikio: You spend 10 minutes studying the structure. The house has two floors counting the main one. Same as the lighthouse. Both constructions are connected through a basalt bridge in the top floor. The large windows make the house difficult to defend, but you feel able to barricade them using furniture or any source of wood. You assess one person would need 5 minutes for every 5-foot section to barricade if using furniture. Obtaining it from the sparse island vegetation would take hours or even days. The strong wooden main door can be barred from the inside and makes a formidable barricade. You think piling furniture will increase its resistance even more (like doubling its hit points and adding +2 to the break DC).
The basalt blocks used in the structure construction are quite slippery due to the rain, and thus you assess it will extremely difficult (Climb DC 20) to climb them.
Amara Li says in response to Aikio "The ceremony will be held in the manor grand hall." and to her two servants she commands "Please, go prepare the room while I prepare myself."
Answering to Peck Amara says "Sure Sir, although be aware I don't know when our guest may arrive. It can take him as short as 5 minutes or as long as half day."
When Aikio comes back from analysing the building he finds out everybody has already entered the house and his worries about exploring first the house were unheard.
Meanwhile the samurai and Kaneka make a fast exploration of the house, finding out it is ill abandoned and apparently empty of dangers.
The kitchen has several large, empty chests that once served as pantry space, an oven with openings in the top for pots of various sizes, a sink, and a single wooden stool.
The great hall is where the servants start to prepare the ceremony. This large room once provided the Way of the Kirin members a place to meet and socialize, as well as a library for research. Two massive bay windows with window seats topped with ruined silk
cushions face north and offer a spectacular view of the ocean and a cluster of smaller islands. An immense fireplace lays against the southern.
Just above the stairs, in the second floor, there is a spare room. The room is devoid of furniture, making its original purpose difficult to discern. There is a fireplace which can be used easily to boil things.
In the largest room of the second floor, a rotting bed dominates the master bedroom along side a relatively well-preserved desk and chair. The ceiling sags from water damage and the floor in the center of the room slants alarmingly. The floor here, as in the rest of the rooms, is made of wood.
You find all over the house furniture in rack condition from abandonment which may have no worth anymore.
The lighthouse remains unexplored.
Aikio looks at the northern cliff's bottom and observes the rough waters, not easy to navigate at all, even less to swim, approximately 50 feet below the house baseline. Afterwards he looks towards the south, where the trail that traverses the island hills and sparse vegetation, goes to the far side, where the prey where the party appeared lies.
Meanwhile Peck sits comfortably in the sofa observing the preparation of the tea ceremony.
Jules, the samurai and Luminos explore the lighthouse.
The lighthouse rises 30 feet and is built of the same dark basalt as the nearby house. A slightly arched covered bridge connects the second floors of the two structures.
Inside, the lighthouse contains only a small storage area and a wooden spiral staircase that winds its way up to the tower’s top. A trapdoor at the top of the stairs exits to a narrow walkway with a railing that encircles the middle of the small room that houses the lantern.
The lighthouse’s lantern is still functional, but the lens and half of the glass panes that would have once protected and focused the flame are now broken from years of bad weather and lack of maintenance. Before
lighting the massive wick, it's needed to add oil to the lantern’s 2-gallon reservoir.
Meanwhile Luminos takes more time to search the storeroom. The circular room has a simple wooden door and contains a jumble of old supplies. After searching for 15 minutes Luminos recovers two rusty bear traps and a 20-gallon barrel of whale oil meant to fuel the lighthouse’s fire.
Many of the old pieces of lumber and iron fittings are actually what remains of a disassembled catapult.
Assembling the siege engine from what remains presents two challenges. First, not all of the pieces are present, as past visitors borrowed various pieces for repairs or firewood. Second, you must assemble the
catapult, which requires devices or engineering knowledge.
Peck waits, while Kaneka gives a look through the windows and the others work on their things.
Aikio approach Luminos and tries to help him with the catapult.
Jules sets the bear traps at both sides of the house next to the cliff.
Aikio observes the furniture, concluding a good carpenter could use it to shape it into the pieces required by the catapult in some minutes.
After running around the house, you conclude there is enough material to available to block 12 5-foot sections of open space, creating a barrier that has the properties of a good wooden door. Setting up barricades takes a character 5 minutes for every 5-foot section.
There might be spare furniture to shape some pieces for the catapult as well.
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"I vote catapult, if they come with a large enough force, the catapult would be a significant advantage..."
Luminos begins to scavenge pieces of furniture to repair the catapult. He then mounts the catapult in the courtyard in such a way that it can face the path and as much other space as possible.