Diomedes looks over at the berries. "Hmm." He takes one and pop it in his mouth. "They're not bad tasting either."
Bastien points to the druid.
"He can use the wand without any problems?"
I could use 4 or 5 more of those berries.
Jordy nods at Bastien. "I think you're right. Quelth? You could probably do this more easily than either Deranthil or I can."
Looking at Deranthil and seeing the he is somewhat wounded, Bastien stops him. "You are wounded mate, and this is not a good situation. let our Druid make some more berries and then we explore further!"
Deranthil takes 6 berries from the druid, eating 4 of them. One for you Jordy? he asks and offers.
"Apparently, the field is full of ankhegs. I say we leave that for tomorrow. I'm not sure any of us are in the shape to fight them immediately."
"Perhaps we should check out these outbuildings."
Yes, I still have some tricks up my sleeve today, so why not. Not sure what could be worse than that... Swarm. Vinnick brushes himself off, using his cantrips to clean and tidy his outfit.
You head to the large farmhouse south of the main encampment. This place seems to have been were the colonist were looking to start growing crops after having abandoned the northern fields to the ankheg.
Atop a sloping hill stands a solitary cottage built apart from the rest of the colony. A stone well has been built not far from the house’s front door. A large stone near the entrance is painted with the words “Levin Farm.” Just south of the cottage is a tilled vegetable patch that grows wild from neglect. The door to the farmhouse appears to have been broken down by force.
Slowly, Diomedes pokes his head inside the door frame of the farmhouse to take a look around.
Looking at the field Bastien shrugs.
"Seems this was not just left yesterday. Still strange!"
Jordy nods at Deranthil. "Definitely. Those bugs were a pain." He takes Deranthil's last berry and holds up a hand to stop Quelth from making more berries. "I can take care of a few minor wounds myself." He hums a few words under his breath and in a moment nothing is left but a few scratches.
"Does anyone else need healing?"
The interior of the house is comparable to the other private homes in Talmandor’s Bounty. It contains only simple wooden furniture and an assortment of common household and personal items. Unlike the other residences, this house is in disarray, with chairs and tables flipped over, blankets torn to shreds, and produce such as corn and melons gnawed upon and then discarded to rot on the floor.
"Hmm. This place has been ransacked as well, but also... raided? Maybe more of the monkey goblins?" He kicks over a few bits of refuse. "If there's roaches in here like the storeroom, I'm outta here." He shivers briefly remembering the horrible sensation of them crawling all over him.
He casts detect magic and scans the room looking for anything that might pop out.
Yea, I am betting monkey goblins. Nasty little buggers. Deranthil agrees as he searches.
Diomedes detects a magical aura coming from underneath the floor in the living room.
Derantil hears movement up above. Something or someone is moving about on the second floor. Sounds like a single creature but it's too big to be a goblin. It's step sounds uneven like it's wobbly.
Not hearing anything yet, Diomedes heads toward the magical signature.
Bastien quickly follows shield at the ready!
At the location were he detects the magic Dio finds a loose floorboard under a carpet. He pulls it up and finds a magnificent longsword hidden away witch is the source of the magic. Next to the sword a small mundane pouch with a few supplies and a letter.
Vinnick follows the group, He looks to the rotted food. Such a waste, makes me want some fresh fruit.
He turns to Quelth, after a few moments in thought.
You, Quelth, you hold druidic magic yes? Can you perhaps restore the fruit and other food stuffs here?
"Hmm maybe I never tried to do anything like that before. I'm not your typical druid" replies Quelth
Jordy, still back by the door, frowns. "What's that noise?" He points up at the ceiling, indicating the upper floor. "Sounds like something big. Bigger than a goblin, anyway. Steps are uneven... wobbly."
Diomedes picks up the sword, pouch and letter. "Nice sword," he murmurs before opening the pouch and letter. He glances down at the letter before Jordy's words catch up to him. "Wait, what noise?" He hands to sword off to and tucks the letter and pouch away, drawing his own weapon.
Bastien puts down his polearm and draws the blade.
"A fine weapon, indeed. Well and true. Do you want it Jordy?"
Readying his crossbow Deranthil nods and adds quietly I heard it too. Upstairs.
Dulin went on the “fishing expedition,” so I thought it was smart to change the drop point, lest they drag it out of him. Rayland is becoming bolder and cockier now that more people have resumed supporting him. Don’t tell him anything, no matter how convincing he seems. If necessary, talk to Eliza, she’s on our side and it’s clear that Rayland resents her for usurping his authority. Some of us plan on taking the canoe—since those bastards conveniently took the boat— and finding somewhere to hole up until the supply ship comes. We can’t all go at once, so wait for the quarter moon and go down to the docks a few hours past nightfall. Barnabus will pick you up. Don’t get followed! —Una
Assuming you head upstairs...
You climb the stairs and in the hallway is a grey skinned humanoid with strangely long limbs. It clutches a bottle of alcohol in one of it's hands and seems surprised to see you.
Knowledge Dungeoneering to identify.
Jordy nods at Bastien. "If you're not going to use it, sure." The explorer straps the scabbard to his hip and advances up the stairs with the sword ready in front of him.
A choker.
Underground predators that often dwell on the outskirts of subterranean ruins or in the deep shadows of nameless cavern outposts, chokers lurk in the darkness and lash out with their long, rubbery arms to grasp prey as it passes by. They seldom attack multiple enemies at once, stalking their quarry until they can isolate a weaker victim from its pack.
Chokers walk with a disturbing, almost comical gait due to their extremely limber legs. Chokers are small halfling-sized creatures, averaging 35 pounds (though larger man-sized specimens have been reported[2]). Despite their size, they have extraordinarily long arms and legs.[1] These limbs are boneless, and each ends in five tentacular fingers with an array of spines on the anterior. Chokers travel on their legs, or all-fours as the situation dictates, and have a gait that humanoids find disturbing and unnatural, due to their boneless limbs. Their wobbly locomotion has led to some commoners to question if the creatures have any skeleton at all.
Chokers appear to have little culture of their own, gathering only briefly to mate before their wanderlust and hunger spurs them again to a solitary existence. Their just-better-than-animalistic intelligence grants them a fascination with the trappings of society even if they do not truly understand it. Accordingly, the grubby lair of a choker (often situated in a difficult-to-reach nook or cranny) usually contains valuable objects such as rings, brooches, cloak clasps, and loose coins gathered from devoured victims.
This fascination occasionally compels a choker to abandon its subterranean home for a closer study of the sunlit world's many civilizations. These chokers feel most at home in the darkened narrow alleyways of human cities, squeezing themselves into sewers, forgotten alcoves, barrels, and similar cramped, overlooked spaces. Chokers prefer to keep hidden during the light of day, emerging from their hidey-holes under cover of darkness to hunt for food and cruel pleasure. Favorite tactics include using their long arms to scoop prey off the street from the safety of a nearby rooftop, attacking sleeping families by squeezing through an open chimney, or tapping on a window to bring their curious food within grasping distance.
Say, wasn't that a canoe on the bottom of the harbor we saw as we came in? It sounds like the colonists were not getting along and that some did not trust the leadership.
"Watch out, this thing will try to grab you and choke you to death." Jordy kept the new sword up in front of him to ward off flying tentacles.
Keeping his shield up Bastien Charges the stoker with his blade.
Vinnick jump backwards in surprise and a little disgust.
He raises his hand and shouts an arcane phrase. Arcanis Nar!
A semi-translucent glyph appears in front of his had and a purple bolt of energy shoots from it, striking the choker square in its chest.
The choker is struck by Bastien before it can react. It tries to grab Bastien going for his throat and chocking him
But before it can do anything else Diomedes charges in and strike the creature down. (it had penalties to ac for being very drunk and for grappling so you hit)
That is it for day one. You search the rest of the farmhouse and find nothing else of interest.
You decide to spend the night at the mayors house since it has the best rooms and enough beds for everyone.
Go ahead and level up. We will proceed when you are done you can rp in the meantime.
Jordy, slow off the mark, had charged in after Diomedes but ended up just looking down at a body. He chuckled and shook his head, clapping Diomedes on the shoulder. "Glad you're on our side." The explorer sheathed his new sword and looked around the dusty room. "Not much up here, is there?"
"Let's get some rest. I think I've had about enough for one day. We also need to think about what might have been going on regarding this note. We should talk to Ramona about this."
"Vinnick, can you identify the sword?"
"You don't need to worry about it, Vinnick." Jordy murmurs a spell under his breath and examines the sword.
It's a +1 longsword with a grip wrapped in green leather and gold wire, glowing with a pale green emerald light. The sword emits light as per the spell light.
The workmanship and engravings on the blade and hilt are not similar to any made in the Inner Sea region;
"I'd make an educated guess to say that's an Azlanti sword. Pretty nice, by the way."
"Jordy, am in that case, would you mind if I take the sword. My mother was an interested Azlanti scholar and she would be very much interested in a blade like that!"
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Jordy chuckles at Bastien's request. "I'll be sure to show it to your mother as soon as I meet her, Bastien. It sounds like she and I have a lot in common."
He nods at Diomedes. "Agreed. The guard design is reminiscent of sketches of Azlanti art I've seen. Even the decoration is what I would expect of late period Azlanti ornamentation."
Grumbling Bastien nods and adds. "Then make at least a copy on a paper with a full detail of build, weight, material used and decorations! Deal?"