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With nothing more than a small hum of discontentment, Leah exits the Captain’s Quarters and heads north to the next building. Marc follows after her but instead of going in behind her, he continues up to the long building set along the colony’s northeast wall. Each enters their building, if they are able, and begins to search.
Kogril absently runs a hand over the stone work table beside him. When he reaches the woodcut door, he takes a moment to appreciate the image. The young dwarf is about to push it open when he hesitates, remembering the scuffle in the mess hall. He glances back to see where the plodding hulk of metal stands, and gives a gentle knock on the door. After a pause, and hearing nothing stir inside, he presses the door open to have a look.
His skill with precious metals did not translate over to woodcraft, so the carved figurines draw his attention. He turns many of them over in his hands, fascinated at their detail, returning each one to its place. He glances over the paints briefly, and makes note to remember to look for other signage around the colony. Discovering the mattock, he pulls out the tool and sits on the bed to inspect it for flaws. Once again he glances around the room, and grimaces, not liking the idea of fighting in an area with only one way out. Nowhere to run, if the fight goes bad.
"I think I'll hang onto this," he says at last to the moving set of armor. He stands up and moves toward the door, sparing one last look to the wooden figures. He slips the handle of the mattock through a loop on his pack as he exits the smithy.
He makes his way to the locked door below the sign of a pickaxe. Once more, Kogril raps his knuckles thrice on the wood and listens as he reaches for his folded pouches of lockpicking tools.
Leah
The building just to the north of Captain Ashferthe’s quarters is a small wooden building rising out of a stone foundation. A flag bearing the Chelish coat of arms hangs over the roof, fluttering gently in the sea breeze.
Inside, you find the mining office. Ledgers and inkbottles clutter a large desk, and maps hang from the walls, and a path of dirt has been trodden into the plank floor from year after year of the mining supervisor delivering his report at the end of the day. The shades over the windows are drawn, but a candelabra on the desk is lit and shedding plenty of light.
There are seven maps on the walls, one for each of the mines. Each map bears the names of the mines: Avernus, Dis, Erebus, Malebolge, Cocytus, Sygia, and Caina. Each one is named for a circle of Hell. Must have been wonderful for the miner’s morale.
The rest of the paperwork contains tedious accounts of daily production at the mines, supply lists, and requisition orders. Right at the top of the stack is the ledger that Durotas Palamar wanted you to retrieve. It seems like Captain Ashferthe was halfway through the last day’s entry when he disappeared; he dropped his quill on the page and it bled out, blotting out the production numbers from the previous day.
Marc
A painted sign depicting a horse hangs from the eaves of the long, tall building, just above a pair of large double doors. A foul stench wafts from inside, and it only gets worse as you open the door.
The rancid smell of death and decay assaults your senses. In a former life, it would have left you doubled over in nausea. Instead, you just feel sick.
The stable contains stacks of hay bales across from several sturdy stalls- too sturdy, in fact. In each stall you can see the rotting carcass of a horse. With the disappearance of the miners, these poor animals must have slowly died of thirst, and now they are slowly succumbing to the flies and the mold.
At the far end of the stable, through clouds of flies, you see a locked door with a brass and iron padlock.
Kogril
Names Mean Little nods at you and raises its flail. Its eyes flash green. ”Good for prison riots.”
Despite its humble appearance, the tool shed is stoutly constructed and the door is as stout as a stone slab. And the moment you touch the door, the sound of a loud clanging bell erupts from the wood. It continues to ring until you back away from the door, at which point it goes silent.
The door rings when you touch it again, just as loudly as the first time, and it continues to ring for about six seconds. Must be some kind of alarm spell. They’re common enough in the mines, and you know that they’re only as good as the guards near enough to heed their call.
Leah examines the room carefully, quickly sussing out the magic flame. Soon after she locates the ledger, which she seizes with a self-congratulatory shake of her fist. She takes a few minutes to leaf through the various daily reports, gleaning what could be critical information, before she carefully packs the entire thing away.
’Lets see that Lizard dismiss me now...’ she thinks as she heads back towards the kitchen and dining hall.
She just makes it outside when Marc finds the remains of the horses, and can’t help but cover her mouth as her stomach churns even though the sensations passing to her through their link are a mere shadow of what her brother is experiencing.
For his part, Marc barely reacts to the sights and smells assaulting him. Perhaps his sister could tell his movements are a bit more unsteady than usual, but he presses on with only a brief pause. When he finds the locked door he is only able to examine it for a brief moment.
A few dozen feet away, Leah jumps at the clanging that rings out. She draws her knife then heads towards the sound, her brother emerges from the stables soon afterward and hurries to keep up with her.
”What’s wrong?!” Leah calls out, as she rounds the shed and spots Korgil.
roll + WIS + rank + class skill + untyped (studied target) + untyped (art of deception)
"It is probably best zat you not sink too much on it," Zaszy offers. "Let me see your legs. I worry zey are also hurt."
roll + CHA + WIS + rank + class skill + favored class + racial (beguiling liar) + trait (fast-talker) + untyped (studied target) + untyped (art of deception) + untyped (skill focus) + untyped (deceitful) + competence (mask of stony demeanor)
Obfuscate the truth
roll + CHA + WIS + rank + class skill + favored class + racial (beguiling liar) + trait (fast-talker) untyped (studied target) + untyped (art of deception) + untyped (careful speaker) + untyped (skill focus) + untyped (deceitful) + competence (mask of stony demeanor)
The golem's comment sparks some curiosity in the young dwarf. "How do you know?" he replies in a conversational tone. He nods to the flail. "Have you ever used it in a prison riot?"
The youngest Emberforge flinches at the first clanging of the alarm, but quickly regains his composure. He looks around to see if touching the door caused anything else to change in the colony.
"Nothing," Kogril answers Leah with a smirk. With deliberate motions to demonstrate, he levels his forefinger toward the stout door, and inches his hand forward until the fingertip touches the door. He winces at the ringing that follows, and takes away his finger to speak to the summoner. "It will just be a touch noisy until I get this unlocked..."
The Summoner gives the structure a look then holds up her hand and softly speaks her words of Detect Magic.
She furrows her brow. ”Hoepfully, it’s just an alarm spell... but I can’t... Unfamiliar spells written in unfamiliar dialects can sometimes be tricky to suss out,” she explains to Kogril with an unhappy shake of her head. ”I’m gonna wait here with you, just in case.”
”In the meantime, two pieces of good news. And one bad. First, we found another lock in the stables. It would be be great if you could help with that one as well. It’s just... Whatever happened to the people left the horses... It’s pretty nasty in there. That’s the bad news.”
”But the other piece of good news is I found the ledger and quite a bit more in Captain Ashferthe‘s quarters. The ledger. Notes. And even some info about the island’s mines, like which were active and which had been closed. Should save us a good bit of time.”
”I’ll inform our Inquisitor once we’re finished here. He might even be pleased enough to say something beyond ‘Hand zhem over and report your findings.’” Leah says, doing an intentionally poor job of mimicking Zaszy’s tone and manner of speech.
Kogril
The Golem raises its flail as if to examine it, and then says "Once." Left unsaid is whether it has only been present for one prison riot, or if it only had to use the flail the one time to stop the riot.
On the last attempt, Kogril can almost feel the lock catch. Almost. If you were a prisoner here, the guards up in the watchtowers would already be loosing bolts at you. And it occurs to you that you don't see any divots in the door where arrowheads were pulled loose. Either the prisoners of this colony were well behaved, or the guards were good shots.
Inquisitor
Delbina Rask stares at you, but she adjusts her posture to give you a better look at her feet.
Marc
The air is foul in here, and the flies can't decide whether Marc is food or not. And if those weren't bad enough, the sight of the horses stirs up pity and disgust in the eidolon's mind. He sees white bone poking obscenely through dead skin, as if someone tried to bundle sticks of white wood in an old hide bag. There are three stalls, and three horse skulls watch him pass with weightless, maggot-eaten eyes.
Marc feels as if they're watching him go by, which he puts down to nerves. Dead horses can't watch anything, he knows. But he feels that same gaze upon him as he fiddles with the lock.
Then he hears someone clear their throat behind him. No, it sounds more like a chuckle. Or a nicker.
Marc turns in time to see something that looks very much like a horse pass through the last stall door. The horse-thing fixes an eye as black as an inkstain on him. Then it snorts and charges.
The horse-thing steps forward and rears up, flailing its forehooves.
Miracle of miracles, or perhaps because it is moving like a thing that has never walked on four hooves in its life, it comes nowhere close to touching Marc.
He almost had it! Kogril grits his teeth and tries to replicate his precise movements, searching for the tumbler he missed.
He copied the previous attempt a little too closely. Frustrated, he tries less finesse and more force behind the pick and torsion wench. Maybe it just needs a little more umph...
He feels a sudden give! But to his dismay, it is not the lock. The young jeweler retracts his bent tool and bends it back with an annoyed sigh.
Kogril takes a moment not touching the lock in order to get some quiet and clear his head. Wringing his hands to relax his fingers, he tries a different pick. He maintains focus on gentle, precise movements; the wrench and pick are his feelers inside the complex lock.
Leah watches with interest as the dwarf fiddles with the lock, but suddenly stiffens out of her relaxed stance.
”Marc...” she says quietly. ”TROUBLE!” she shouts for all to hear a moment later before she whirls around and begins running back towards the stables.
—-
Marc counterattacks, first with his fists...
for
for
Punches thrown, Marc follows up with a violent, open mouthed bite!
for
Marc's hands slash through the horse, but he feels nothing. The apparition's head flows like smoke in the wake of his claws, but Marc doesn't taste smoke when he bites down.
The horse rears again!
And Marc feels that. Numbness spreads across his chest, and the horse cocks its head at him. The pitch black spots it has for eyes are spreading like a bloodstain.
The lock pops open and hangs on its latch. When Kogril open a the door, he finds a very well-stocked tool room. Hanging from the east wall is a full set of well-used blacksmith tools, with a few homemade woodworking tools thrown in for good measure. They are sharp, but oiled to preserve them in this climate.
The whole of the north wall is taken up by mining tools, which are much less well-cared-for. Picks and hammers, shovels and wedges, and some tools familiar to Kogril and Kogril alone. These tools have a coat of orange rust, likely due to sitting unused for a month.
The west wall is a mixed bag. There are gardening tools, some missing, as well as carpentry tools and wood axes. Looks like some of the guard weaponry was stored in here as well: spears with crossguards that could stop a charging boar as surely as a rioting prisoner.
Zaszy reaches out gingerly, grasping Delbina's right leg just above the ankle, and slowly pulling the foot forward to get a look. "Your ankles are bruised, and your peet are scraped," Zaszy notes.
roll + WIS + rank + class skill + competence (healer's kit)
Using the same salve as before, he begins treating the bruises and cuts on her right foot. "You seem to hab obercome quite ze ordeal." His voice remains calm as he releases her bandaged right leg, letting her adjust her seated posture, and then takes her left leg, likewise treating the bruise and cuts he finds there. "Ze gods hab smiled upon you, perhaps?"
roll + WIS + rank + class skill
Zaszy wraps up bandaging Delby's other foot, and then looks over his shoulder toward the wall behind him. "I belieb ze ozers might require my assistance. Please remain here, while I take a look."
roll + CHA + WIS + rank + class skill
Feign concern/gentleness
roll + CHA + WIS + rank + class skill + favored class + racial (beguiling liar) + trait (fast-talker) + untyped (studied target) + untyped (art of deception) + untyped (skill focus) + untyped (deceitful) + competence (mask of stony demeanor)
Obfuscate the truth
roll + CHA + WIS + rank + class skill + favored class + racial (beguiling liar) + trait (fast-talker) untyped (studied target) + untyped (art of deception) + untyped (careful speaker) + untyped (skill focus) + untyped (deceitful) + competence (mask of stony demeanor)
Kogril gets a glance at everything inside the tool shed when Leah shouts and runs for her brother. With a quick hand to the heavy pick at his side, he turns to sprint after her.
"C'mon, Mean Little!" he shouts over his shoulder to the golem.
Delbina's feet are more than just scraped. There are some deep punctures and cuts, as if she walked over some sharp rocks. There is a spot of necrotizing skin on her big toe, from which Zaszisar'ǃixakaǂaʔ pulls a small shard of yellow stone. Sinmarrow.
He suspects that the stuff he cleans out from between her toes would tell her whole tale, if only the Inquisitor was a learned alchemist with a laboratory at his disposal. There is red clay mixed with dark earth and crushed plants, as well as a trace of blue powder and some kind of grit. But he wipes it away and bandages her feet, confident that the one clue is all he needs.
Delbina snaps her head around when she hears Leah's shout, and the Inquisitor's soothing words don't do much for her. She retreats under the counter and hides in place.
Names Mean Little's eyes flash yellow. With a grunt and a basso "Yes," it charges after the shorter Dwarf.
Tyran is standing just outside, so the DC would likely be 8.
Tyran's eyes perk up at the sudden shout and his head immediately snaps to consider the stables. Hearing the inquisitor preparing to leave, he steps back inside the kitchen.
"You go ahead, sir. I'll keep an eye on Delbina and make sure she stays here, safe. If you can get whatever is causing the commotion out into the open, I might even be able to hit it from here."
Tyran sees Delbina's wild eyes peeking out from under the counter. They disappear, and the shuffling of boxes and pans can be heard.
Boxed in as he is by the strange, undead horse, Marc sees no other option than to continue to try and harm it and wait for help he knows is coming.
for
for
Meanwhile, Leah continues running towards the stable, but as it comes into view she skids to a stop and then, oddly, takes an extra moment to stomp each of her feet against the ground as if to plant them a little more firmly into the dirt. She then holds one hand out to her sides and says, ”Teacht chugam,” in a loud voice.
Inside the barn, there is the slightest ripple in the air and Marc is simply gone. Outside, some distance away, a similar silent distortion appears to Leah’s right, looking like heated air above a fire, and then Marc is there by his sister’s side, his hand gripping tightly to hers. The two release each other and Marc takes a step forward to edge out in front of his sister while she turns to inform the others of the situation.
”There’s some kind of spirit or wisp of a dead horse inside the stable. Almost intangible but still able to do harm. We need to be very careful approaching it,” she says to those rushing towards her. ”We think cold hurts it. Perhaps fire would too? It would be easy to set the entire stable on fire...” she suggests, even knowing that such a fire might have the potential to get out of control.
The horse flinches as Marc's first swing passes through it, but it's not there for his next attack. It recoils and pounces with both hooves aimed at Marc's head-
-and misses as the Eidolon is spirited away.
The unearthly horse circles in place, looking for its prey. When it finds nothing, it snorts in frustration and disappears into the shadows.
Marc has also taken one point of strength damage. This is not enough to affect his skills. He will heal that damage in one day, unless he is restored first.
Names Mean Little halts his charge when he sees Marc appear by his sister. For a moment, he seems confused as to who he is supposed to fight, for his helmet swivels from Marc to the stable and back. Then he stomps over to the barn doors and kicks one closed.
"Spirits are vulnerable to fire. Fire will drive it out into the sunlight."
Kogril catches up with the others at the stables. His eyes widen at Leah's account of Marc's assailant. "Wind spirits at sea, and now horse spirits?!"
Zaszy nods to Tyran, and exits the hut. He moves towards the disturbance, in time to overhear Names Mean Little's remark about fire. "I would razzer we not burn ze camp down. What is ze issue?"
roll + CHA + WIS + rank + class skill + favored class + racial (beguiling liar) + trait (fast-talker) + untyped (art of deception) + untyped (careful speaker) + untyped (skill focus) + untyped (deceitful) + competence (mask of stony demeanor)
”Some sort of undead horse inside the stable,” Leah answers while her brother keeps a look out ahead. ”It was intangible, almost like it was made of smoke.”
Kogril warily follows the golem over to the barn door. "A ghostly undead horse..." he mumbles to himself, eyeing the heavy pick in his hand, wondering if his preferred weapon is useless against an intangible creature. Standing just outside of the building, he wrinkles his nose when he gets a faint whiff of the rot inside.
Listening to the lizardman, the dwarf picks a small vial from his pack. He holds up the bubbly fluid to show Leah and Zaszisar. "Will acid harm the spirit? It won't spread like fire does..."