"It's getting dark." Terana comments, squinting down the cliff towards the ruined settlement. "Perhaps we should camp tonight and explore tomorrow? I don't see all that well at night."
Deciding to wait until the morning, you find a suitable campsite along the beach a short distance away from the ruined settlement. You take shifts keeping watch throughout the night, but it passes without incident. The sun rises the next morning, providing better illumination for your exploration.
When everyone wakes the next day, Gideon first heads down to any stretch of dry beach that might be relatively nearby, hoping to see if there are any tracks or other signs of recent passing.
Gideon does not find any tracks in the region. It doesn't look like anybody has been here in some time.
Terana follows Gideon down the beach, walking knee deep in the surf and enjoying the pull of the waves and the tang of salt water.
As Terana wades in the tidal pool, the seawater churns with movement and the ghostly cries of panic fill the air. This is followed by loud splashes as three creatures emerge from the water. These barnacle-encrusted walking corpses look like zombies, but they are dripping with water and give off a nauseating stench. They groan as they stagger forward, brandishing greataxes.
One of the trio seems more richly dressed than the others, though its clothes are in a similar tattered condition. Its eyes burn with red malevolence.
Reaching out to run his fingers along the rock wall, Gideon speaks as if thinking aloud. "These cliff walls...they're basalt. That's a good material to use for building stone structures. We could quarry stone from here for Talmandor's Bounty."
When the undead creatures rise from the water, Gideon's eyes widen.
"Draugr! Don't use fire or spears, they won't work as good!" Gideon calls to the others.
"Hm, buildings in the water. The water level must have risen here since this was built."
Tobar packs up his usual traveling gear and brings it all along. The laconic craftsman is quite subdued during the trip, with little to say. He is very much in his own world, but whatever he's thinking about, he isn't talking about.
As the team approaches the ruins he brings out his familiar crossbow and checks it, then takes up his customary second-line position with the team.
As soon as Weyve calls out about not using spears, Tobar makes an annoyed noise and stows his crossbow, then pulls out his machete.
Terana grins, in a slightly feral fashion, twirling her glaive. "Come on then!" Setting herself she waits, ready to strike.
The apparent leader of the draugr swims forward, rising to his full height as he draws near Terana. The paladin slashes with her glaive, tearing into his rotting body. He bats aside her opportunistic attack as he closes with her and chops with his axe! Terana's armor saves her from what might have been a fatal blow--nevertheless, it still leaves a nasty wound behind! The gillman feels drained as the blow drains her life force!
"Don't like the looks of those! You'd think they would be happy to see some civilized people!"
Weyve steps back, and begins casting a spell.
Hoping to make things a bit easier on their new companion, Gideon casts Grease on the lead draugr's ax to try and make him drop the weapon.
The draugr leader's greataxe slips out of his hands, splashing into the pool. The other two move in on Terana. She deals one a cut across its body before both of them swing on her! She parries the first attack, while the second one goes wide.
Tobar moves wide around the fray and comes behind the draugr leader, flanking with Terana.
Stepping carefully back through the surf Terana gains a little more room before striking again at the lead, now disarmed draugar, as she calls upon Shelyn's grace to mend her wounds.
Tobar moves to flank the draugr, but misses with his attack. Terana steps back and lops its head off with a slash of her glaive! Its body collapses back into the water.
Weyve completes his spell, and a creature rises from the waves, looking much like a watery bear!
Then he begins another, and a wash of energy flows over the group.
"That should help a bit."
The elemental rises out of the water and turns on the Draugr.
With a whoop of triumph as the greataxe slips out of the draugr's hand, and Terana steps up to slash viciously at the now-unarmed foe and brings him down, Gideon draws his scimitar, waving it at the nearest draugr to him. "Hey! You! Come get some!" he shouts.
Gideon steps into the shallow pool and slices one of the draugr with his scimitar. Weyve' summoned elemental slams into it, finishing it off!
The remaining draugr swings at Gideon, its axe chopping into his side painfully.
Gideon cries out in pain when the axe bites into his side, though he is able to fight off any worse effect. "My turn!" he says through gritted teeth as he swings his machete against the draugr again.
Tobar sloshes into the water and advances on the undead creature, machete in hand, and chops at it much like one would chop a side of beef.
The elemental shifts slightly to the south and attacks the remaining Draugr.
Weyve comes up behind Gideon and places his hand on Gideon's back.
"Almost there."
Terana too moves up to strike at the draugr, whirling her glaive around before it slices into undead flesh.
Tobar slashes the draugr, chopping into its back with his machete. As it whirls to confront him, Terana finishes it off with a slice of her glaive! Weyve's elemental slams it for good measure.
Tobar pauses to catch his breath for a few seconds, then makes an exaggerated walk out of the surf and back onto land.
"I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of those," he opines as he sheathes his machete and unlimbers his crossbow once more (out of habit as much as anything else). "Terana, you all right? Gideon? Those were some nasty strikes."
"I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of those," he opines as he sheathes his machete and unlimbers his crossbow once more (out of habit as much as anything else). "Terana, you all right? Gideon? Those were some nasty strikes."
"The cut is nothing." Terana responds, showing the closing scar which now graces her hip. "The problem was that axe, I feel like it drained me somehow... made me weaker. Speaking of which..." She drives her glaive into the sand and begins to peer through the water, looking for the axe. "Gideon, Weyve, can you pin-point where the axe went down? I don't want to leave it around for anyone to find!"
"I've certainly had worse injuries, but I wouldn't mind a bit of healing..." Gideon admits as he moves to help Terana locate the axe the draugr was wielding.
Gideon spots the axe at the bottom of the shallow pool, as long as those belonging to the other draugr. Those appear to be mundane weapons, but the leader's axe is well-crafted and radiates a faint aura of magic.
"This axe...there's something special about it. Hold it for a second, let me dig a little deeper." Gideon says when he hands it over to Terana, casting Detect Magic and trying to identify the weapon's properties.
Weyve dismisses the elemental with a... wave.
"Good that the weapon isn't infused with that life-draining energy," Weyve says.
He examines the axe.
"We can bring it back to town and examine it there. In the meantime, shall we look at these buildings?"
Terana nods and secures the axe to her back, next to her trident - the blades protruding over her shoulders like a demented butterfly. She strikes out towards the building in the water, enjoying the coolness of the waves and the sting of salt in her cut.
Terana searches the two flooded cellar holes. She discovers a bit of treasure: 12 corroded longswords, a magic light steel shield, a masterwork handaxe, a magic ring, and 210 gp, 76 sp, and 310 cp in scattered coins.
Terana disregards the longswords, but fishes everything else out and carts it back to the rest of the group. "I found this, and a bunch of rusty swords, under the house. Any of it useful?"
"Interesting... these ones are magical! Let's have a look."
"Maybe I'll have more luck with this shield than I did with the axe..."
"A shame their colony didn't fare so well," says Tobar as the group works its way through the decrepit buildings. "Woulda been interesting to have some neighbors. Well, at least once we've given 'em a proper funeral pyre, we can see about using the stone quarry here."
When you take the time to search the lodge on the hill, you find a threadbare bedroll, a rusted iron pot, and other signs of a makeshift camp, as well as strange markings on the wall near the camp. These markings seem like early prototypes of cipher glyphs used by the Pathfinder Society to covertly communicate with agents in the field. They are based on Varisian trail signs.
"Huh. Would've been helpful to read this a few minutes ago..." Gideon muses. "Some kind of Pathfinder cipher glyph, but it's old. Some of these markings are obsolete. It reads 'undead in water' and 'no safe shelter here'; there are some coordinates, too, leading north. I think I can follow them with my compass."
"We should finish that final building first." Terana suggests. "Don't want any more surprises if we're going to try and set up a quarry here."
Assuming no objections she'll lead the investigation of the final building (the one closest to the bottom of the map - which I don't think we've explored yet?). Once that is done she smiles to Gideon, "Ready to lead us on a new treasure hunt?"
Weyve swims around the flooded buildings to see if there are any more human remains around on the ocean floor.
"Well, there isn't much left here. This settlement was clearly from a long long time ago. But let's see where these Pathfinder markings lead."
"Aye. I'm a little worried about those 'don't stay after dark' warnings. Maybe we can find and deal with whatever problem finished this colony and turned 'em into undead in the first place," says Tobar.
Gideon leads the way as you travel north, blazing a trail across the island with his machete. Every so often, he checks the coordinates on his wayfinder to ensure that you're still on the right track. You travel for nearly six hours, taking a break for lunch.
Eventually, you reach the northern foothills of Ancorato. A river winds down from the foothills through the dense forest. While the river's source isn't immediately visible, the roar of a nearby waterfall indicates its direction. While the river flows at a rapid pace, the water is broken up into rapids by large rocks.
Eventually, a clearing opens in the forest, revealing a thundering waterfall. Large, flat rocks covered in green moss dot the waterfall's plunge pool, and strange tracks cover the muddy ground around the stream and waterfall pool.
Terana looks around the pool cautiously. "Does anyone recognise these tracks? I'm not keen to get into the water until we know whats likely to be in there..."
Gideon takes a few minutes to examine the tracks in the mud.