"Right over the alter!", Kari shouted in reply to Fenna.
BAD!
Fenna halts, and hopefully her arm cues Eamon to do the same. She draws the gladius.
The creature’s face twists from wailing pain as his eyes fall on Fenna. Fenna and Urram watch as the creature flies directly at her. She stands with her arm raised, clueless to her coming fate. The creature flies THROUGH Fenna, swinging its arms at the priest behind her!
The creature fails to hit the cleric.
Round 1
Urram<- UP NEXT
Eamon (1 damage)
Round 2
Kari
Fenna
Poltergeist (4 damage)
"What's happening now?" Fenna near shouts.
"It's attacking Eamon!", Kari cried. "It's behind you, Fenna!"
"I served you Father! Why betray me!!" The wails are heard by everyone in the chapel.
When Kari tells Fenna what's happening, Fenna makes a connection. The bow and statue, it's a chapel dedicated to Erastil. The former priest, presumably the man's killer, is Erastil's priest, and so is Eamon.
"Eamon! Get out! Go now!" Fenna shouts.
Urram steps to one side and levels his spear - the carved leaves quiver and fly off, nearly too fast to see as they tear through the ghostly creature.
Urrams leafy motes strike the appairition.
Eamon follows Fenna's call and makes a run for the door; the ghost takes a swipe as he moves. "Why would you do this?"
Manages to avoid another hit from the assailant he can't see.
Round 2
Kari <- UP NEXT
Fenna <- UP NEXT
Poltergeist (8 damage)
Urram
Eamon (1 damage)
Kari conjured a blade infused with elemental energy, and swung at the angry spirit. "That's NOT Father Adran!". she admonished it.
Kari strikes with her blade barely swinging wide, though the strike clues Fenna into the ghost's location.
Using Kari's attack as a guide, Fenna swings her sword in a wide horizontal arc through the same space. She wonders if she'll even know if the attempt succeeds.
Fenna's swings pair with Kari. She herself doesn't seem to notice, but her strike lands, causing the undead to recoil in pain.
Suddenly, the invisible creature becomes visible, and particularly frightening, in an attempting to scare everyone off.
A look of fear washes over the face of everyone, who dashes in fear from the chapel.
"What happened in there?" Ramona asks as the four of you dash past. "Hey! Where are you going.
Terror overtook Kari as she ran out of the chapel. "You were right, Hrolf! It's really scary!"
Fenna faces off alone against an opponent she cannot see for two rounds. At least she has the square pinpointed.
Hrolf watched Kari run out the door. He considered running after her, but she had told him to stay, so he stayed.
Terrified though she is, Fenna stands fast. She swings broadly again, just hoping to make contact. Precision seems pointless to her.
Kari, Eamon, and Urram suddenly stop. The fear passes, they all suddenly spin and rush back to the chapel.
"What happened?" Ramona asks as you bound up the porch and through the door.
Kurvis, Alba, Ramona and Eamon file in behind the two of you. Hrolf whines, obediently standing still as everyone around is moving about.
Inside, Fenna holds her sword high, as she backs around in a circle, taking wide but deliberate swings at the air. With the help of Alba's extracts, Kari and Urram look around the large space. The poltergeist is nowhere to be found.
Kari hurried back to the chapel. She replied to Ramona,"I hit it with a water blast, Urram hit it with magic, and I think Fenna hit it with the Azlanti blade. Then it got really scary and I panicked!"
She looked around and saw no sign of the spirit. Satisfied that they were safe for the moment, she walked around to the back of the alter, and looked for the compartment that Fenna had described.
The other colonists look on as Urram and Kari conduct a thorough search of the chapel with the aid of Alba’s extract. The effects of the See Invisibility dissipate after a few minutes, but that is more than enough time for the pair to be certain. Fenna appears to have slain the poltergeist despite her inability to see it.
"OK, let's have a look at the body," Kari suggested. She cast a spell and let Fenna show her what she had found previously.
"Hopefully we can find some clue as to the poor fellow's identity. Maybe that will make some difference in putting the spirit at rest."
Fenna keeps swinging until Kari and Urram return and give her the "all clear".
"What do you think happened? Where did it go? It doesn't make sense that it could be killed does it?"
Fenna shows the others to hollow space in the alter where the body is hidden.
"We'd best hurry it on out of here while we have this chance to do it unhindered."
"Take the body." Urram agrees. "I will wait. A spirit like this may come back - I want to look, see what happens when it comes back."
Fenna helps move the body out and onto a cloth so it can be carried outside. She works very hard not to retch. Once the corpse is removed, she goes to wash her hands many, many times.
When the conversation starts, Kurvis and Eamon move in to look around. When the ghost fails to bother anyone, they make their way to altar.
”Poor soul,” Kurvis remarks as he looks into the altar. ”If he crawled in here to hide, he must have known it contained church supplies.”
The body of the man has no belongings, the altar itself only contains church supplies, and Eamon fetches the bow.
Fenna helps drag the corpse of the man out of the chapel. Ramona directs you to a spot inland to bury the man. The priests begin heading that way with the body.
”Thanks again for the assist,” Ramona says. ”We have a lot of work to get done around here, and I've got to direct everyone. You three can help as you see fit today, but please don't stray far from the colony. I’d like get things settled here a bit before you start venturing out. ”
Kari spent the rest of the day repairing furniture and that had been damaged by jungle creatures (mostly likely monkey goblins). She re-attached chair arms and backs that had been pulled off, refinished a table surface that had been scratched, and put a cabinet door back on.
Hrolf spent the day "supervising" Kari's carpentry work, lying in the sun, and when that got too hot, lying in the shade.
Fenna hands off the spellbook to Urram since he's mentioned wanting to study it. "No hurry, but I'd like it back when you're finished" she tells him.
She also brings up to Ramona the boots she and Kari had spotted at the waterfall on their hike to rendezvous with the ship. She tells her she would like to go back the next day to check more closely since it is about the only further clue they have on the fate of the initial colonists. She also asks to bring Lyra along.
For the rest of the day, Fenna helps inventory tools, food, and other supply stocks left behind by the first colonists. She then compiles first wave and second wave stocks to generate a master list of the colony's supplies.
This work takes her well into the early evening, and aside from a bit of work-related chat, she talks to nobody in particular.
Having received the spellbook Urram heads home and settles in at his table. He doesn't leave for the next several hours - responding to questions, queries and offers of food with the same distracted "Thank you. Later." The mound of clockwork pieces around him ebbs and flows as he pours over the book and tinkers again and again with the strange cylindrical devices he always carries. Five sits nearby, pulsing a soothing light as Urram works.
Kari finds her day of work is nearly as relaxing as Hrolf's day of laying about. The other colonists are especially friendly when they see the gnome hard at work. In no time at all, folks present Kari with requests for small handiwork in their own homes or bunks.
Ramona is very eager to send the group to investigate the pair of boots that likely belonged to one of the previous colonists. In the storehouse, Fenna finds Perrell and Kurvis hard at work. They have a system in place which seems punishingly intricate, but Perrell has resigned herself to follow the Abadite's system rather than start a quarrell. The cargo from The Peregrine is off-loaded fairly early, and the third set of hands goes a long way in putting the goods away.
Over the course of the day, a few folks ask Kari and Fenna about Urram. The elf is a mysterious figure to most of the colonists, and his abscence from the day of work seems to puzzle the folk from Absolom. After hours of work at the Levin Farm Urram has accomplished a great deal, but moved very little. He looks up to see Fenna and Kari fast asleep.
Expedition Day 49: 6 Arodus, 4717 AR; Moonday
The sun is barely peeking through the shutters when a rapping is heard on the door of the Levin Farm. Hrolf is quick to let out a warning bark, rousing those that the knock did not.
Kari told the colonists who inquired that Urram was working on some sort of magical project.
***
Kari awoke to Hrolf's bark; she hastily dressed and went to the answer the door. "Coming!"
"Good morning adventurers!" Lyra greets Kari enthusiastically. "We're going for a hike today!"
"Yeah, OK," Kari replied, bleary-eyed. "Give me a few minutes to get ready."
She got her gear together, and grabbed something to take down to the dock to eat.
"I need to meditate for a few minutes on the dock," she told the others. She summoned Hrolf and walked to the shore. She sat on the dock, ate breakfast, and meditated on the flight patterns of birds.
Fenna hears Kari going to the door after the knock so she doesn't move. There might be no need to. But, after she hears Lyra' voice, she knows she has no choice.
She crawls out of bed, says "good morning" to Lyra, and makes some tea while Kari goes to be with nature.
"We have a little time while Kari's gone", Fenna explains to Lyra. "Let's scrounge up something to eat while the tea steeps."
"Why did you come so bloody early?" she grumbles.
"I suppose it is early," Lyra says, as the rest of the house begins to stir. "Just excited to stretch my legs a bit. Besides, I didn't want Ramona to give me another job to do while I waited. But don't let me mess up your routine, I'm ready to go whenever you all are."
"Ha! well you're welcome to hide out from Ramona here anytime."
Fenna searches around for something to eat that won't involve much, or any, actual cooking.
"This will be a safe haven from our cruel taskmaster."
Kari returned 20 minutes later, decidedly more awake. "Right, ready to go and hunt wild boots!" In response to Hrolf's puzzled look, she said. "That's a joke, Hrolf. Boots aren't wild or tame; they're just boots."
Urram doesn't actually go to sleep until rather late - although the fact that he makes it to his bed at all is an achievement. Five's insistent pulsing as his head drooped over the spellbook helped.
The next morning he rises, reluctantly, as he hears the sound of human voices in conversation. After poking his head out of the room to check no-one was touching his clockwork, he performs a gentle series of stretches - attempting to wake himself up before Five decides to be 'helpful' and shine bright lights in his eyes.
Once he's more awake Urram moves into the main room and takes over from Fenna on the cooking front, using a simple cantrip to ensure exactly the right amount of heat for everything to cook perfectly. With food served the elf eats, silently before finally saying something.
"Good morning."
After breakfast, the ladies and Hrolf enjoy a bit of leisure as Urram fiddles with his cryptex. Once everyone is ready to go, you all march through town and to the north, taking the hiking path Kari and Fenna took to the rendezvous point.
The path on the runs mostly along the coast. The bay just outside the colony lets out into the deep sea, and the high cliffs prevent a direct hike along the sandy beaches. The woods are still full of sounds of various creatures: boars and monkey goblin sounds, prints and droppings cross your path very often. The markings made by the exploratory expedition guide your way clearly. After an hour of hiking you push through the trees to the open sky, returning to an expansive and breathtaking site.
"It's beautiful," Lyra remarks. A massive waterfall flows from inland to the west. The path crosses a large pool, the eastern shallows let fall off into the sea a few hundred feet below.
Notably, the boots that stuck out from the falls above have moved. Now stick out of the shallows of a pool on your level, maybe 40 feet ahead of you.
"Yes, it's a marvelous view!", Kari agreed. She dismounted from Hrolf's back and took a drink from her waterskin. "The boots have moved since we last saw them!", she noted. She advanced cautiously, looking for tracks, and stopped ten feet in front of the boots. "They weren't left by someone weeks ago; I'm worried that they're some sort of ruse!"
"Yes, it is. But there's something strange underneath I think. That reminds me. I've been thinking about all the nasty things we've run across and how so many of them are the result of magical transformation."
"Urram, do you think there's some kind of magical pall that hangs over this place? That changes things through exposure to it? I'm just wondering if something like that might have affected the colonists who were here first. Maybe they lost their minds?"
As she talks Fenna starts looking around for a long piece of wood to use as a pole.
"Those boots came down and awfully long way from up there to still be together like that. They might be tied together, but the might also be on some feet. I think we should give them a poke before we get too close."
"There is much old magic here." Urram agrees. "Azlant was strong - their magic is still here and it can change many things. But old magic - slow. To make so many lose their minds... that is unlikely. "
He offers his spear as a fishing line.
Looking around for something to use, Fenna can see that the boots are actually still fitted onto a body, which is sitting strangely still under the flowing stream. As Urram extends his spear to Fenna, the legs holding the boots out of the water suddenly submerge!
Battle Map (link)
Round 1
Kari & Hrolf <- UP NEXT
Boots
Urram
Fenna
Lyra
"Hrolf, come!", Kari ordered. She said a prayer to Gozreh to bolster her allies.
Hrolf hastened over to Kari, wondering what was up.
A body bursts from the water, advancing on Kari. The creature (link) carries an axe, but swings it's open arm at the gnome. Attached to the creature's head, a bizarre spikey shell sits. Tentacles protrude from the shell over the decomposing human's head.
The slam connects!
Round 1
Urram <- UP NEXT
Fenna <- UP NEXT
Lyra
Round 2
Kari (7 damage)
Hrolf
Boots
Fenna draws her blades and scurries up to the water's edge beside Kari. The head tentacle thing looks like the weirdest part of it, so she aims a slash there.
"As I was saying, everything here is a little off."
Urram, having not prepared any of his defenses, steps back and levels his spear at the creature. The leaf shaped missiles strike the shelled helmet thing.
The winds kick up around Kari as a surge of vigor washes over everyone. She reels at the waterlogged monster’s attack, and Fenna moves up to answer. The flailing arms of the zombie don’t give Fenna much of a look at whatever is atop its head, and only gets one strike, which is deflected by the shell.
As Urram’s motes slam into the shell creature, Lyra pulls out a small sickle blade and rushes around the slope closer to the melee. "Gozreh's guts! What is that thing?!" she exclaims.
Round 2
Kari & Hrolf <- UP NEXT
Zombie
Urram
Fenna
Lyra