The settlement has a palisade fence and a number of guards that keep watch over 24 hours.
Ramona lives in governor's house than rather than the barracks. She is awake, writing something at a desk when Bhookaaj enters.
'Is there a problem?"
To her group and Romana if she is present... "You guys do know that we can't trust that letter, right? For all we know it could have been sent by agents of the aboleth in an attempt to sow discord among us."
Ebirah nods. ”A valid concern. But those two were alone with an Aboleth. This is not a comfortable predicament to be in...”
"The letter makes more sense to me than the story of Eliza and Rayland told us." The dwarf talks with a distinct concern in his voice. "We found them with no trace of their captor, in an unlocked room with their weapons. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't have waited for a rescue that might never arrive and instead forced my way out." He poses for a second, then continue. "Plus their story about having lost any memories of what happened just feel too convenient."
Bhookaaj will tell Ramona all he knows about the note:
"This note was brought to us by an Azlanti clockwork device, and is written in Azlanti.
"We don't really know who wrote it, nor do the celedons.
"At the same time the celedons don't know what aboleth are.
"But I would say caution is definitely needed.
"Eliza's name was singled out in scraps of documents we found when we first looked around the abandoned colony."
Ramona considers the letter. "I agree that this letter doesn't seem trustworthy, but if these aboleths can really affect people's minds then we need to look into this. Do we have any way of breaking mental control on someone?"
"It's difficult to say. There are spells which provide protection against attempts to influence the mind, but breaking an existing hold can be a different proposition, especially if it's well-established."
"Even so, we should at least be able to determine whether they are affected with a magic detection spell, and proceed from there."
”Really? That’ll be helpful.” Ebirah happily adds.
"I can certainly cast detect magic and look upon them both. It will just take a minute."
Lorelei goes to where they are and casts detect magic and looks at them. If they are still sleeping, she tries to be as quiet as possible so that she doesn't wake anyone up. She'll report back to the others with her findings when she is done.
"I have nothing that could help anyone under the influence of some magical mind control spell."
"I don't have any magical skills", says Bhookaaj (to state the obvious).
Lorelei and anyone else using detect magic finds moderate magical auras on both Eliza and Rayland.
Lorelei will return to the others. "I do detect moderate strength magical auras upon both Eliza and Roland. Unfortunately I am not able to determine the origin or nature of those auras. Perhaps someone more skilled than I in the arcane arts could take a look and see if they can determine anything more?"
"I know a bit of the Arcane, but I can't see magic." Ebirah states.
Valdern also tries to identify the aura, but can't make sense of it.
Rather than relying on a verbal description, Elia decided to investigate for herself, trusting that, so long as the same people weren't continually trudging back and forth to observe Eliza and Rayland, she'd probably get away without arousing suspicion this once.
Unfortunately, she returned from her surveillance none the wiser, and said as much before moving the conversation on.
"The presence of magical auras is suggestive, but not enough to condemn them, especially since it might be related to their transformation. So what are our options for gathering more evidence?"
"Is anyone here capable of some... anti-magic, or something like that?" Ebirah asks, voicing the first stray thought that popped into his head at this point.
Lorelei shrugs. "I can see what protective magics I can pray for, but I am not capable of any anti-magic spells at this point in time."
"Well, the others are at least aware of the danger.
"We better carry on to the next place in our search."
Another week passes relatively uneventfully, with no developments concerning Eliza or Rayland, although they have resumed some duties as colonists.
Several days after you received the note, around mid morning, shouting and even screaming is audible from the beach. Anyone looking sees a few colonists with fishing equipment fleeing at least a dozen humanoids with distinctly skumlike features.
Lorelei takes her weapon and hurries to the gate of the settlement, making sure the fishermen enter safely and preparing to keep out the skum.
Bhookaaj does likewise.
As the party races to defend the colony, their path is suddenly blocked as Rayland, fully armored and wielding a sword and spiked shield, steps out from behind a building. Behind him stands Eliza, who seems to cast a spell without speaking or moving, splitting into four identical duplicates of herself. As she does so, her flesh becomes more transparent, revealing bone, and her pupils expand until her eyes are completely black. Even the light from the sun seems to darken around her.
Elia hadn't been idle during the week, taking the time to peruse the books they had retrieved from Spindelock, and spending a fair amount of time with the Celadons, trying to establish the locations of any other nearby sites of interest (or at least sites which had been of interest in the days of Azlant), with an eye to figuring out where the aboleth might be holed up.
The outbreak of hostilities probably hadn't come as much of a surprise to anyone, and Elia hurried to help, intent on intervening wherever she seemed most needed.
Lorelei flings an icicle at the closest Skum.
Valdern uses his magic to increase Rhyfedd defense. He then moves toward Rayland. "What are you doing. You used to be the leader of the colony here. Your duty is to protect the people here, not to fight them. Snap out of it Rayland!" He hopes that he can raise a moral debate in the old soldier's head.
Rhyfedd moves to intercept the Skums. If he can, he'll try to attack the closest one.
Bhookaaj tries shooting the nearest skum:
… but makes a rather poor shot.
"Just take them down and we can question them later on their actions."
Lorelei aims a Sound Burst to get as many of the Eliza's as she can.
The effect of Lorelei's spell is quite dramatic as all four Elizas and Rayland recoil and try to shield their heads from the deafening sound. As the sound dies, several dull thuds are heard as weapons fall from stunned fingers.
Bhookaaj tries Eliza (or one of the Elizas, anyway) this time:
With Rayland's weapon on the ground, Valdern dive to pick it up and moves away from the soldier. "Come on man, you don't want to fight us. Snap out of it!"
With the Skum too far away for now, Rhyfedd attack one of the Eliza. He isn't sure which one is the real one, or if they are all fake, but the slam seems to be on target.
Bhookaaj's bolt flies straight through Eliza's image, and it pops softly like a bubble. Rhyfedd's strike, however, strikes solid flesh, and this Eliza does not burst.
Lorelei tries to shoot a crossbow bolt at the same image that Rhyfedd did.
”You’ll have to forgive me if I kill you.” Ebirah flatly states as he moves to slash at the enchanted magic user.
Bhookaaj tries shooting Rayland this time:
Attacking the same image Rhyfedd did proves to be an effective strategy as Lorelei's bolt pierces Eliza's shoulder. Ebirah's slash, however, is turned aside by some invisible force.
Elia opted to lend a hand against Rayland, striking with one of her more powerful spells. Disarmed or not, she didn't see them shaking off the control, and it was better to bring them down quickly so they could help repel the skum.
Elia's scorching ray flies an inch to the side of Rayland's head, while Bhookaaj's shot strikes true, causing Eliza to nearly fall.
With his sword stolen, Rayland reaches down to grab his spiked shield and moves to combat Ebirah and Rhyfedd.