She lets out an almost inaudible sigh as the creature begins to feed. Her little smile never leaves her face. "...yes..."
Antona...
She remains there, kneeling and topless, letting it drink until its hunger was sated... or until she became light-headed, whichever came first.
It shifts in its bindings, trying to find a more comfortable position. "Ask your questions."
"...wonder why that is." She mumbles before looking at the ugothol. "Anyways... who is your master? If you were here at his behest, what did we do to draw his wrath?"
Kip regrouped with the others while Victrix sought to carve information out of Not Carver's ally.
"Simon, do you think they actually have a base on one of the other islands, or could it be underwater? Do you think our friends underwater have been able to find any of the stalkers in their city?"
Simon recalls that faceless stalkers are not aquatic or amphibious. That would make an underwater base or infiltration plan unlikely.
...so that's why the colony went missing.
"Alright..." She's about to speak again when another moment of dizziness causes her to pause. "...do you know where your master's lair is? Or did it only ever speak to you through a proxy or something like that?"
She starts to reach for one of the lesser restoration potions.
Her hands shake a bit and some of the potion's contents are spilled down her chin, but a lot of colour returns to her face and she feels invigorated.
"Ah." Victrix nods. "Do your people have a say in what this Onthooth would have you do?"
"...I guess what I'm really asking is what your people would have done if Onthooth hadn't ordered you to attack us."
Can't say I should really judge them for that. I mean, I'm not one for sticking to plans when I'm hungry myself...
But another question stuck out in her mind.
"What's it like, working for this Onthooth? What sort of master is it?"
"What sort of baser urges?"
A search of Carver's house doesn't turn up anything of interest. It would seem all of the pertinent clues were on the stalker who was impersonating him.
...I have a sneaking suspicion that I know already...
”Did your people ‘play’ with the colonists they kidnapped?”
"Well then..." She glances at the floor for a moment before looking back at the ugothol. "...in that case, if it were just me, I'd be sorely tempted to take you up on that offer."
"But... I'm already spoken for, as it were." She sighs, thinking of her beloved guardswoman.
That, and your people raped Ema and attacked us.
It shifts uncomfortably in its bindings. "I have answered your questions. Will you release me now? I promise I will do no more harm to you or your kind."
A beat, then, "Unless, of course, you ask me to."
"I have only one more question for you..." She gets up from her chair and slowly kneels before the ugothol again, puffing her exposed chest up a bit and looking at it without a hint of fear.
"...are you still hungry?"
There was something about the feeling of willing helplessness that really appealed to her... maybe it was because she was used to being given orders back in Andoran, or maybe it stems from having a brief reprieve from worrying about the colony's welfare.
But, whatever the case, she allows the creature to feed from her until the lightheadedness strikes her again.
Then, when she's ready to stop, she pulls away from the ugothol, quaffs her last potion of lesser restoration...
...spills some of it, then gets up to put her clothes and armour back on. She'll free the ugothol's bindings--around its feet. Not its hands yet--then she'll escort it to the edge of town and release it.
You spend the remainder of the night gathering up the bodies of the faceless stalkers and tending to the wounded. Fortunately, none of the colonists died in the attack, thanks to your heroic efforts. Medrinnah shares a tearful reunion with her mother Sighra, whatever bad blood is between them forgotten in the wake of the attack.
Eventually, you retire to your home to rest from the grueling day. In the morning, Ramona summons you to her residence for a private meeting. The atmosphere in Talmandor's Bounty is understandably glum.
Ramona wearily nods a greeting when she opens the door to her house. "Thank you again for saving our colony. I know things look grim right now, but we mustn't give up hope that there may still be a way to find the people that those aberrant horrors had taken. I feel that they are still alive somewhere. Victrix, were you able to learn anything from interrogating your captive?"
Who knows... maybe it'll come back. Maybe we'll see each other again.
Then she turns to go back into town to help clean up.
Victrix nods. "I did. I learned a lot of things, actually."
"The stalkers served at the behest of an aboleth called Onthooth. It tasked them with kidnapping colonists, delivering them to their island home to the west, and taking their place for as long as it took to replace them all. They were to deliver them unharmed and unspoilt." She stands up straight, folding her arms behind her back as she speaks. "There, the colonists would be handed off to the aboleth's skum servants."
"Turns out the attack wasn't part of the aboleth's plan--after we found the stalkers the first time, they had to basically go for weeks without feeding or changing back so they wouldn't draw suspicion. They got so desperate with hunger that they attacked." She shrugs. "They didn't really like the task they were given--from what the captive told me, Onthooth is a cold, cruel and demanding master. And it wanted the hag dead so it could have uncontested control of Ancorato."
Victrix awkwardly looks around at the assembled group.
"...did you get all of that?"
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Simon gazes piercingly at Victrix, trying to sense if anything is unusual.
Absorbing what she said, Simon still feels slighted about being left out of the interrogation.
"Frankly, I wonder how much of your information is reliable. It would have been good to have someone in the room trained to detect falsehoods at the very least. Having a trusted backup in the room to prevent against attacks or to heal any overzealousness, would also have been useful."
Looking her up and down critically, Simon wonders aloud. "At this point, it is hard to trust anyone. You could be the stalker right now, for all we know.
As for the information, it is interesting, but lacking precision. Did it tell you the exact location of this island? Did he tell you the signals we would need to approach the island without being attacked? How many stalkers are left on this island? What type of fortifications do they have?"
And she's becoming quite annoyed with him at the moment. His remark about her possibly being a faceless stalker seems to have struck a nerve.
Victrix's eyes harden, and she takes a piece of jerky out of her backpack. She pointedly looks at Simon as she eats it and swallows it.
"Looks like I'm still me."
"As for the information, it is interesting, but lacking precision. Did it tell you the exact location of this island? Did he tell you the signals we would need to approach the island without being attacked? How many stalkers are left on this island? What type of fortifications do they have?"
"It said it was to the west. There's one island to the west and one to the northwest. I think we can hazard a guess as to which one it is."
"No, it didn't tell me whatever signals were needed to approach the island without being attacked. I think that its master will have figured out we're coming for it next by now anyway."
"A few stalkers escaped into the woods during the fighting, and we killed the rest without losing a single colonist. There probably aren't enough left to credibly threaten us now that we know what to look for."
"And considering their master is an aboleth with skum servants, I'd anticipate things that mess with your mind, if what one of them did to Eliza and Rayland is any indication."
She tilts her head at Simon. "And what about you? Did their leader's body have anything we could go on?"
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Simon watches Victrix eat. "Hmph. Carver apparently ate well enough as well."
After a few moments, he begins to realize how petulant he sounds, and mentally reprimands himself.
Shoulders slumping, he lowers his gaze.
"I'm sorry. Now is no time to start doubting each other. It's just so hard to believe that they could have replaced so many of us and nobody was able to tell the difference."
He lets out a long sigh.
"There doesn't appear to be anything more to learn from Carver's things. We know from the flowers on his boots that he was at one of a few locations on the beach.
I have to assume that is where he signaled to the island from. While we do know of the two islands you mentioned, one of those being the Strix's island, it is completely possible that there is another smaller island that we haven't seen yet."
Retrieving the spyglass from his haversack, Simon continues. "We'll have to visit each of these locations and scan the water with this spyglass. If we see signs of a settlement, we'll go to investigate."
Returning the item, he grips his sword hilt. "I hate leaving these stalkers on the island. Maybe before we do that, we can get Kalikk to help us track down the ones who fled?"
"Tracking them down would be an idea."
"But if we do that, that's more time for the aboleth's servants to come and steal the colonists away..."
With all that had happened Ema spent little thought to further exploration or their next steps. She just wanted to forget about all of that for a time and focus on something else. About the only good thing to come from the attack was Medrinnah getting past her problems with her mother and the two re-uniting.
Ema spent the evening and night alone, thinking, or trying not to think, before finally falling asleep. She wasn't sure what she dreamed about, it didn't seem like anything much, but when she finally awoke the next day she remembered a great deal about a topic she didn't know she knew of. It seemed that the surfacing of the memory of Anna knocked some other things loose and Ema now knew a fair bit about clockwork and how to make it as well as some about engineering.
Ema was excited enough that she wanted to examine the mining construct from before again. She thought that not only could she fix it but that she could make new ones with the right materials. Even more shocking was the knowledge of how to make golems and other constructs. All of this would be very useful once she got her tower built. It was around then that everyone was gathered to meet with Ramona and discuss the situation.
While Ema had things of far greater interest personally to do she knew that the fate of the missing colonists was important too. The information that Victrix obtained from the captured enemy was of great use in planning. As the discussion turned to what to go after first, the remaining stalkers or the missing colonists Ema said, "Both are important but as much as I want to rescue the missing and wipe out the stalkers I have another possibility that might be worth considering."
Ema took a deep as she prepared to speak and said, "With what I..." she shuddered, "remembered yesterday it seems I have had other memories come back to me as well. Maybe it would be better to say knowledge. I believe I can repair both the mining construct we found and create new ones that can be used to protect the town. It's going to take a lot of materials to make very many from scratch and I would prefer to get the miner working again to supplement the materials. I would also need to get my tower finished as it will provide me with the facilities I need to do the work in. I would also need to speak with various others about making some of the components needed and the assembly process of various parts."
Ema gave a sigh then and said, "It may not be feasible in the short term but I would like to get started as soon as we can on this to get some good from it. If we can get a few defenders built and people trained t operate them it would give us a big advantage against any further incursions."
"That's a great idea, Ema," Ramona says. "But right now I think finding our missing friends is our top priority, since we finally know where we should be looking. The longer we delay, the more they suffer in the aboleth's clutches."
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Simon nods along with Ramona. "I completely agree. I had worried that I was being too hasty again. If you and Victrix both agree that we should mount a rescue as quickly as possible, I agree as well.
Let us resupply and we will head out to the beach immediately. We will need a boat, if one can be spared."
Simon listens to anything else offered by the assembly, then offers a further thought.
"Ramona, the archon that Ema summoned was able to identify the stalkers by detecting their aura of evil. Until this threat can be eliminated, I think you should gather everyone at meal times and have someone Detect their auras. Do it openly, it should reassure everyone.
If we had thought of this earlier, how many lives could have been saved..."
"You can use the ship's boat that the Peregrine left behind," Ramona says. Her face is grim when Simon mentions the archon, but she shakes her head. "There's no point dwelling on what might have been. Now, we must focus on the present. Good luck, my friends."
After taking some time to resupply, you head north out of Talmandor's Bounty. A bit of searching uncovers some fresh tracks with bits of crushed lavender flowers, and following them leads you to a small peninsula some 3 miles northwest of the colony. Across the sea to the west, you can barely make out the higher portions of another island in the distance.
After a few minutes, you start seeing flashes of light in the distance. Peering through a spyglass, you can see the flashes are coming from what looks like a partially crumbled stone building on an island some 12 miles to the west. The flashes follow a particular pattern that might be a coded message.
Ema nodded in acceptance and said, "You're right of course the captives come first. I'll draw up a quick preliminary list of what is needed as well as a letter for someone who might be helpful in getting all of this done since I won't be able to be here to supervise it very much." When they were done with their meeting Ema made her preparations to leave and wrote up both the list and the letter which she delivered to Ramona for the next outbound ship to take.
Ema searched for Medrinnah then and found the girl with her mother. It pleased the mage to know the two had patched things up between them. "Medrinnah," Ema said, "I'm going to be heading out again in a short while so I wanted to leave you your homework." She pulled out a pair of scrolls, "It is time for you to learn to copy a spell from another source into your spellbook. These should do nicely for you, the first one is a standard protection spell, the second is a spell that can be used to attack, if you are close enough to touch your enemy," she arched one eyebrow as she said, "I believe that you have shown enough responsibility to be entrusted with such a thing."
Ema reached out to embrace her apprentice for a moment, not saying anything just holing her, before releasing the young woman and stepping back. "I sent a letter to a colleague in Absolom to come join us out here and help kick start a program to create clockwork constructs to help protect the town. He's very brilliant but not very good with people, in fact he doesn't care at all what they think of him." She smiled in amusement, "He's also easily distracted by his work, cantankerous, has a very foul mouth, and I'm entrusting his well being to you." She smiled in amusement, "Oh, and he insults people all the time so when he starts doing it to you don't hold back, give him everything you've got to insult him right back and he'll respect you for it."
With her meeting with her apprentice done Ema caught up to the others and boarded the boat after casting a few preparatory spells. As they sailed she Ema tried to enjoy herself as best she could though she was fairly oblivious to what was around her. As a consequence she never even noticed the signals being flashed from the nearby island.
Victrix points to what looks like a good spot to moor a boat.
Then she spots the signal lights.
"...status... go... Karnax... instructions..." Victrix puzzles over the message.
"Do you suppose Karnax is the name of their home?" Victrix shrugs.
"Might as well try. It'll make landing easier--less likely for us to be shot at."
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Simon will use the signaling mirror to reply using the same code.
"Success. Returning soon."
After a short pause to see if there is any further response, Simon will shrug.
"They either bought it or theu didn't. Let's go get the boat.
People don't usually refer to a house as waiting. I'd imagine it is a creature or construct of some kind. That name you learned, Onthooth? That mighy help us in bluffing this Karnax."
A simple reply comes back. "Received."
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On the way to get the boat, Simon will visit with Kalikk and Oorka briefly.
"Thank you again, both of you. You saved our lives. We are going now to attempt to confront these creatures in their base.
While we would greatly appreciate your help, if you choose to come, I think it might be best for you to return to your village and provide witness of the evil that besets us. Remember, Detect Evil is the best way to identify the stalkers."
Heading to the ship's boat, Simon grabs a set of oars and prepares to row.
"If you're going out there, I want to come with you! I can't save your lives again if I'm stuck over here," Oorka says. "Plus, I want to see what lies across the sea. Kalikk can head back to Sheshkadrann to keep them safe."
The distant island is 12 miles from the peninsula. It will take about 6 hours to row over there. If there's anything else you need to do before leaving Ancorato, now's the time to do it.
Before leaving the island, Victrix goes to find Antona, her worries returning to the fore.
We might not make it back from this one in one piece...
Victrix finds Antona keeping a close eye on the woods just outside of Talmandor's Bounty, making sure the faceless stalkers don't try to return. She gives the barbarian a weary smile. "So, you're heading out again? It seems like we never get enough time together any more. Of course, your mission is an important one, so I understand..."
Victrix pulls her girlfriend into a hug before she says anything else. "I know..."
"...and I'm afraid that we might not see each other again if this goes sideways." Her voice is starting to shake. "It's not fair, is it?"
"Life's not fair. You struggle to make ends meet for as long as you can and then you die," Antona says bluntly. "But if you're lucky, you find something that makes the struggle worthwhile." She holds Victrix close to her.
Victrix is quiet for a minute, calming down as she stands in her embrace.
A question starts to gnaw at her.
”...what’s the nickname you gave me?”