"A week ago? I don't think anyone has lived here for more than a month! So who was using the forge?"
Walking into the building, you find yourself in the work area portion, while a door to your right leads into what appear to be the living accommodations. As you are examining the room, a couple of goblinoid creatures rush out at you, hissing and spitting in some gods awful language! They appear to be goblins, but are different from the tales you have heard or the ones you have maybe seen back on the mainland! Long sinuous tails wave back and forth, and their nose/mouth and ears have more of a monkey-ish look to them!
The two in the room with you lung from their hiding spots under the work benches, hurling daggers at you!
The thrown dagger sweep across the room, hitting their unsuspecting targets square!
A third monkey goblin darts around the corner from the living quarters, stabbing away with a short spear.
"Bold May Post"
Mr. Copperpot
Anastasia- 4 dmg
Katria
Glickly
Noiraigue- 4 dmg
Goblins
~Red
~Green (resolve Dmg)
~Blue
Noiraigue grits his teeth.
"Goblins! On your guards, everyone!" he shouts, drawing his scythe and attacking with all his strengths the goblin before him!
for
However, he seems to trip a little bit as he draws his scythe and misses widely his target!
Glickly summons moisture from the surrounding air, and mutters a few religious sounding incantations of his own. Then, with a flick of his tongue, he tries to deliver a cold surprise to the red-eyed goblin.
Scoffing as finds herself a victim of another surprise attack, Anastasia charges the blue goblin and attempts to impale it with her weapon.
Katria positions herself to stab at the goblin by Noirague.
The goblin rushing in from the north takes one look at the body guard that flanks Mr. Copperpot and steps right through him!!! His spear lashes out, stabbing the gnome deep in the side!
Noiraigue strikes out with his scythe, but misses the weird monkey creature. Suddenly, a pink and glistening tongue whips past Noiraigue's head to slide along the monkey goblin's face. The saliva freezes, leaving a bluish burn behind as the goblin screams!
The heroes try to turn the tide of battle, giving as good as they got! Anastasia lashes out with her rapier, poking deep in the creatures belly.
Mr. Copperpot steps away from the attack on his flank, raising his hands and sending a colorful burst at his attacker. The colorful spray washes over the goblin.. its eyes cross then diverge before rolling up and the creature falls over snoring!
Katria tries to bring her beast down, but her longspear falls short of the nimble little things.
The goblin squaring off against Noiraigue feels the weight of his weapon burning in his arms as he strikes out again. Despite the lingering effects of Glickly's Licky, the goblin draws blood once more.
Squealing in pain as Anastasia pulls back her rapier, the goblin lashes out with his spear once more but misses.
The remaining goblin snores on!
"Bold May Post"
Mr. Copperpot- 5 dmg
Anastasia- 4 dmg
Katria
Glickly
Noiraigue- 6 dmg
Goblins
~Red- 6 dmg, Fatigued
~Green- U,B,S x3, B,S x4
~Blue- 9 dmg
Glickly moves to the center of the room and flicks his tongue again, trying to slow down the blue goblin this time.
Anastasia continues her rapier attack on the blue goblin, but this time fails to hit.
Noiraigue tries again, attempting to slice the goblin.
for
His second attempt proves more successful!
Glickly's tongue lashes out across the battlefield again, delivering a saliva laden spell to the blue cloaked monkey goblin. The wild abandon of the creature defending itself lends strength of heart to it and it is able to fight off the spell!
Anastasia tries to make monkey-kabobs, but misses the mark.
Following a quite unsophisticated scream of pain, Mr. Copperpot turns his attention to the red cloaked goblin and manages to derail the simple creatures mind for just a moment, just in time for Noiraigue to step in and slice it right in two!!
Her first chosen foe dead, Katria moves over to the remaining goblin snoring in the floor. She moves up to impale it, but trips on some of the spilled tools, stumbling and missing the mark.
Green cloak continues to snore, but Blue cloak has had enough of this! He withdraws from the battle, leaps across the workbench, and tumbles out the window!
Out of Combat!
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Mr. Copperpot relaxes a bit as the combat ends.
"I'm wounded," he laments as he holds his side. "I'm sure the wound is infected...imagine all the diseases I could contract!" he says, beginning to get agitated.
"Perhaps one of them has an antidote..." he says as he kicks one of the corpses with his toe.
Glickly forgets his earlier trepidation as he jumps to help Mr. Copperpot without hesitation.
"Calm down, let me take a look. Someone tie up that goblin so we can get some answers!"
Glickly checks the wound to see if the gnome is properly worried.
Noiraigue sighs at the sight of the last goblin fleeing.
"Well, are they intruders or are we intruders? I always wonder... Oh and by the way, I'm hurt as well." he says, joining Mr Copperpot's search of the dead goblins.
Part of the team rushes over to Copperpot and begins to help him bind his wounds, while the rest search the monkey goblins. The wound is deep, but bears no signs of imminent death lurking within the area!
Looking about within the room, you can see that either these or other similar creatures have been using this room for a little while now. Nests litter the room, musk fills the air, and the room is in a mess that no self respecting smith would tolerate. It is obvious that a couple very crude attempts have been made to actually use the tools and to make things though. However, digging through the detritus, you do find a few gems.
strap affixed recently. You also salvage 40 metal arrowheads from the debris. In addition, you find a small lockbox under a worktable that seems to have avoided attention. Opening it you find 4 small vials, each labeled Cure Light Wounds.
As Anastasia takes a long look through the acquired loot, her eyes pause at the darkwood buckler, "Would anyone mind if I took that shield? It would be a big help. I could also use the chain shirt, but I wouldn't want to be greedy."
Regardless of any answer, she splits up the healing potions between the three injured party members, and drinks one herself.
Katria eyes the quality chain shirt, but waves her hand over it. "You should take it, 'Stasia."
She turns to Copperpot's bodyguard. "Are we going to talk about your useless incorporeal bodyguard, Copperpot?"
The crew starts to divvy up the spoils from the fight while Copperpot finds himself in a bit of hot water...
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Mr. Copperpot's eyes grow large for a moment before he also drinks one of the potions. In his shock, he even forgets to check it for poison first.
"What...?! Oh...right. Well, while we were looking around, I sent the real Grimnir to try to find the colonists. He can handle himself easily. I created this illusion to distract the enemy, which it has done admirably," he says.
The illusion waves at Katria.
"But fear not...the real one will be back soon. You will likely see my other servants from time to time. I am quite powerful, I assure you."
Noiraigue shrugs.
"No need for a buckler. I prefer to fight with both hands. But I'd drink a vial if I can..." he declares, taking one of them.
"Oh and if you want to carry stuff around, I can help." he offers.
After that, he stares at the gnome and the gillwoman with an amused face.
Happy to see some healing occuring, Glickly simply sits and waits for the others to finish up. Nothing here they have found holds much interest for him, but he will pack up the arrowheads if no one takes them, and also pick up one of the machetes in case he might need to cut something later.
The team divvies everything out and with one last look around, they move on to the next building in line. This large building is durably built in a log cabin–style construction with a thatched pitched roof and three gables. Its several open windows are uncovered, and the sole entrance on the east side of the building is bereft of a door. A small porch covered by a gable shelters this door, though the porch has not been swept and dirt and dust have started to accumulate, while one end of the gable is starting to sag from neglect.
Stepping into the yawning entrance, the interior of this building suggests a modest place of worship—not quite a temple but more than a mere shrine. A table near the center of the west wall appears to serve as an altar, draped in a white but dusty cloth. Behind the table, a large wood carving of a humanoid figure with a stag’s head leans against the wall. Two rows of benches face the altar, although some have been knocked over and two piles of ashes are visible in the aisle between them. Scattered throughout the room are assorted objects related to public worship, such as a chalice and a ceremonial rod. An ornately carved longbow hangs on the wall near the altar, as if on display. Against the north wall is a smaller shrine. Nearby is a wooden statue roughly three feet tall that depicts a male half-human and half-avian creature. One carved wing hangs partially broken from the statue.
As you step into the building, you immediately realize that there was some sort of struggle here, and it was never straightened up! Time has made the tracks in the dust here unidentifiable, but a closer look may reveal a few details.
Katria eyes the gnome with some skepticism, brow furrowed and lips frowning, "You sent your bodyguard off without telling us? How do we know he's not triggering some kind of trap or attack against us?"
"Huh, Talmandor."
Glickly just never learned much about other religions, but his father did teach him a little something about tracking.
"Blood. It's old... few weeks or a month maybe, but the trail leads out the front entrance."
"Yeah and the longbow is the symbol of Erastil. Met a priest once or twice in the wilds. Pretty good 'n sharp shooters if you ask me!" he says, looking at the carved longbow.
"Blood? Yeah, we maybe need investigate more inside this building as well." he says as he's going in the 'temple', taking a good look at the ceiling.
Noiraigue correctly identifies the bow and the wooden sculpture, and moves into the little temple. Katria identifies the second statue, marking this as a duel use space of sorts, and Glickly spots the blood leading from the door into the temple and towards the altar.
As Noiraigue examines the bow, he can see that it is most likely a very well made and functional tool.
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Mr. Copperpot shrugs in response to Katria. "Grimnir is just one of my allies. He is a veteran of several orc wars. He can handle himself. And if I had to keep track of all of my associates, I would quickly lose track...I have so many looking out for my welfare and protection."
He looks into the temple. "This is the first place that looks like it wasn't just abandoned. There was a fight here. I'm sure there are likely traps left behind...but we should probably investigate."
As the team moves into the temple, the building itself seems to shake and rattle for a brief couple of seconds. As you stare about you, a ghostly figure of a man rises up from the altar and floats in midair, blazing eyes staring down at you. The ghostly form appears to be wearing clothing you would have expected all the colonists to be wearing.. simple homespun tunic and trousers. However, his clothing still bears the rends and bloody rips of a violent attack.
You can feel an otherworldly anger flood over you as you stand agape! Suddenly, a howling voice whirls through the room fluttering pages of the texts lying scattered about and knocking over a chair here and there.
The room shakes again with uncontrolled anger and objects start rattling and shaking where they sit!
"Imposters? Who are we pretending to be?"
Despite being taken aback by the sudden ghostly appearance, Glickly is more confused and desparate for answers than he is afraid.
"Please tell us what happened here. Were you a colonist? Did you know Jonas Kelson? I was to meet him here."
Distracted by switching armor, Anastasia pauses in her task when the figure appears and just changes shields. "Uh, how do we fight a ghost?"
Taken aback by the sudden appearance, Noiraigue looks at Glickly who seems better to handle this kind of situations.
The name of Jonas causes the specter to pause in its tirade. "Sent here? You are not..?" It peers closer at you.. "I do not know you.. You are not part of the colony.. Who are you??"
the quivering tension in the room has abated just slightly.. you get the feeling that although violence is still imminent, you have bought yourselves some wiggle room.
The specter turns its dead and hollow eyes towards the quivering Mr. Copperpot. "I thought they were my friends too..." it says mournfully. "Until they started acting funny.. and then my friend.. my leader..attacked me.. tried to kill me.. he didn't know he succeeded. I ran and hid, dying alone and wondering what had come over my friends and townsmen."
Noiraigue's eyes flicker in rage as he hears the specter's tale.
"Madness! Your leader turned against the colony? What happened?" he asks.
After his words echo in the sanctuary, he gathers his senses and asks another question.
"Would you want your remains to be taken care of? I'm no priest, only a wanderer. I pledged my life to Desna." he proposes.
"I have no idea what came over my fellow colonists.." the specter says. "But many individuals were acting funny long before I confronted Rayland and he attacked me. If you find the reasons behind this, I may finally be able to rest.. you may do as you please with my body.. until my answers are found, I am beholden to this place..."
The specter fades from sight, and the furniture stops rattling and shaking. Suddenly, a loud click like a latch being thrown is heard from the altar.
"Well, now we know more. And let's watch each other, in case it begins to affect us as well."
Glickly looks for the cause of the click sound, thinking perhaps something opened.
Acting funny? Is that a curse? Or some kind of illness?
Noiraigue seems to sink in his thoughts after the meeting with the ghost. He eventually shrugs and nods to Glickly.
"Indeed. We have some evidence. Goblins, colons acting 'funny'. Let's see if we find something else further!" he says, already heading towards the next building.
While Noiraigue moves to the next building, Glickly moves up to the altar. Something protrudes from beneath the altar cloth.. lifting the cloth reveals a small cubby.. and an overwhelmingly wretched smell!
Glickly is easily able to tame his stomach and opens the latch to reveal the decaying body of Silas.
Noiraigue and anyone who accompanies him:
Moving out of the chapel, you continue around the triangle of the colony to the next building. This long, rectangular building appears to be a home, though larger than many beyond the palisade to the south. It has three windows, all covered with wooden shutters, and a single door facing northwest, which is unbarred and slightly ajar.
Once outside and before the next house, Noiraigue approaches with caution the ajar door, listening for noises inside it. He also quickly scans the ground for traces leading inside the house.
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Goblins, colons acting 'funny'
"I think my colon is acting kind of funny...maybe I'm getting this infection! Maybe I'll turn into one of them!" Mr. Copperpot exclaims before getting a hold of himself.
"Or...rather...we should investigate this with my powerful magics to find out what happened to the colonists."
Mr. Copperpot follows after Noiraigue carefully after motioning for his bodyguard to go ahead of him.