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The hanfling is clearly uncomfortable with all the concern and worry directed at her. ”It’s fine! Don’t make a fuss! I was just startled, is all. See look! Just a scratch!”
Now they all think I am some weak little girl. I’ll show them! Mak’da’s words cut especially deep- Arisira sensing disdain and regret in her voice.
”We can’t head back on the count of me! Aside from the fate of the two colonists outside, we don’t have any information to bring back! Let’s keep going, there is at least two more rooms we need to open!”
She pushes away the remaining arms, and springs to her feet. There is a slight wobble that she hopes no one noticed, and then heads for the door.
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The halfling steps outside just as arrow strikes the ground, quivering. She looks up quickly to determine its origin.
"That wasn't very nice! There are more of us than there are you, so I would be careful about what you do. The good news for you is that we aren't planning on staying! Now tell me- what happened to the people who were stationed here?"
The halfling steps towards the wall where the arrow came from.
Grease
The spell can also be used to create a greasy coating on an item. Material objects not in use are always affected by this spell, while an object wielded or employed by a creature requires its bearer to make a Reflex saving throw to avoid the effect. If the initial saving throw fails, the creature immediately drops the item. A saving throw must be made in each round that the creature attempts to pick up or use the greased item.
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Arisira cannot actually see the grippli until her head pops up to speak.
Well...they're dead obviously. Killed dead. By....well gosh I cant figure it out. I saw Song O halflings and Mireborn Lizard folk with their big saw-toothed terbutjes. Pretty grisly. Came to trade. Scavenged instead. Place is a good hunting blind. And its mine. Get your own.
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Antal leads his horse out from within the map-room, newfound spears proudly bundled up in a group of six. He watches the exchange between Xanko, Mak'da, and Arisia and the grippli. Shielding his eyes from the sun, he peers up at it where it stands on top of the wall.
"We should discuss as a group what our goal is here. Obviously we cannot just give the fort to anyone, as it belongs to the settlers." Antal says.
"As you negotiate, I would suggest that we continue to search for signs of life as well as information that we can take back with us. Lizardfolk are an especially bad sign, and a foe I am used to facing." Halflings may or may not be reasonable, but not not lizards.
"Please let it know that we are going to proceed in our search. Does it have a name?"
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Vera stays in the doorway watching the conversation with the grippli. She doesn't interject just waits to see if the small creature is going to be reasonable or start a fight.
Halflings and lizard folk fought here? Did they work together? She almost speaks but holds her tongue just in case the small one hasn't seen her yet.
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The grippli considers for a long moment the offer of alliance.
No I don't think so. You chase off all the vermin anyway. Pity. One halfling still around here! Fun target for practice. Halflings come first, lizards second. Only hint I give to your stupid prey disturbing militia. I'll be back for trade when you're less hostile.
Mak'da observes the grippli slink out of hiding and then hop into a nearby tree.
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Antal looks back toward the wall, where the grippli was. "I hope I did not scare it away" he says. "But.." the halfling pauses a beat. "Everything is in balance. I think it likely we will see it again."
He waits for the others near the western door, but faces the group and his eyes move all around as if to say "Where next?"
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Mak'da watches the little grippli settle into the nearby tree. I don't think you scared him off but I worry what might happen when the settlers return to this place. These are his lands as much as my peoples, you foreigners think you can just stick your towns and forts wherever the hell you want as if other people weren't already living here...
She trails off and looks around the courtyard. Regardless, if there are some halflings still here we should find them, they might be able to tell us more about what happened here. Xanko, can you get us into the main building? she asks gesturing at the door.
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"I am sorry to say this Mak'da but that is the way of life. These people ..." she says and points at the dead colonialists "... of Chelexian decent are not wicked but have moral standards that deem conquering and ruling over the so-called inferior races a just cause. I do not necessarily distaste such bigotry but have to say that I am hit by the fact that here people get hurt on both sides ... and that individual freedom on the side of the natives is limited. But at the same time the people who did this will have to accepts the consequences of their actions and you Mak'da and the halflings and lizardfolk as well have to understand that life is not fair, nor is it good or evil. It simply is, and we all should be determined to seize every moment together as companions as our life can end as fast as the life of these dead people here!" she days with a sly smile.
Shen then takes out her snow-white albino rat Sefid pit of her cloak and starts to play with her.
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"This place is hot, the terrain is muggy and dirty, the fort is in ruins, the locals are small, green, rude and violent... Oh how I want to be in a tavern drinking good mead and listening to some bawdy song." Xanko complains to no one as he leaves the building still unsure of what transpired with the frog-man.
Xanko walks over to the main building and checks the lock...
if he thinks it is good to go then he will try to disable it if it is locked...
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As Xanko goes to examine the door her finds that it is smashed a bit and was barely being held together at all by the time he pushed it open.
On the inside, the room itsef is trashed,big stacks `of crates and bales of hay which have large slash and stab marks all across them with large barrels of wooden weaponry all over the room.
A large mass of flies can be seen gathering around behind one of those training haystacks.
Behind it, three headless corpses each impaled by a spear.
There is a door leading further in beyond
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Walking out of the shadows after the grippli leaves, she puts in her two cents about expansion, "People have been moving about and taking over places forever. Our friend may have not been here at all but for the fort. He clearly decided to take advantage of the situation, and didn't seem beaten down to me. We may see him again." she gives a bright smile.
"To the main building." She enters after Xanko, and examines the dead bodies. "No heads." she states the obvious.
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Mak'da scans the floor looking for tracks or anything which has been discarded.
Antal follows. He grimaces at the sight of the bodies, covering his mouth and nose with his right sleeve. He nods agreement about looking for tracks, although he sees much of the floor disturbed already.
No glorious burial for these people, just inglorious death.
"This is starting to make me angry" Antal says. "Fort guards may they be, a desecration this is. It makes me even less sympathetic to the squatter we just met. How does it turn a blind eye to this? Would it really have been an ally?"
Give me an ancient tomb any day. Dry as dust and devoid of messy murders.
He pulls Harmony along the wall separating the party from the courtyard, toward the next interior door. He motions toward it. "One last door I suppose. Must be a ladder up to the top somewhere else."
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Arisira stands in a (very) brief moment of silence as the creature bounds away, back into the jungle.
"I have never met a grippli before! This is so exciting!"
Realizing the somber mood, she halts her enthusiasm for a moment- responding in kind to Shen and Mak'da. "I am not sure I can call what you speak of morality, Shen." The halfling makes almost subtle eye contact with Antal before continuing to discuss the Cheliex morality. "You may call that culture, perhaps... but not morality. The world is an adventure, and immortality is through story and deed- It is not achieved on the back of enslavement and suppression. There are wild and untamed places that must stay that way. Otherwise, where would the great epics and stories come from? This is such a place, is it not?"
"I have no love of those who discard or discount others as less valuable than themselves. Every person is a grand novel; a beautiful story to read and enjoy, full of lessons in happiness, sorrow, hope and love."
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Her conversation is cut short by the swinging open of the next door, and the sudden scent of death washing over the halfling. Gagging, the sensory experience pulls her from philosophy to survival. Her bow comes up, arrow at the ready.
As the team enters, Arisira hesitates at the door. Remember what happened last time... She pauses for a few seconds, and scans the room from the doorway before entering.
Soon though, her natural curiosity wins out, and Arisira steps into the room. Here goes nothing
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The group carefull proceeds through the room, wary of further hostile scavengers, but the room has no such surprises for them this time beyond the stark reality of death.
Xanko continues to lead the way opening the next door.
A trio of beds rest against the southern wall of the room, one concealing a lumpy, bloodstained mass within its blankets. There is a sturdy trunk laying against the wall, while an open cabinet lays stripped bare to the studs across from it.
Quickly the group finds a trail of blood drops leading from the shape in the bed to a ladder leading to the floor above.
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"I have never met a grippli, and still have not" Antal says in response to Arisira. He ignores Arisira's condemnation of Cheliaxian morality for the moment. No need to gang up on Shen. I would best stay out of it. She seems genuinely affected by the deaths. No Asmodean this one.
He glances at the trunk, curious but leaves it alone.
He moves over to the bed, sleeve still over his face, and carefully lifts the blanket back. "We still have no real information" he explains as he searches. "Is that blood fresh?"
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The blood is still sticky; not quite dry yet as he lifts the covers he sees an otherwise perfectly healthy looking with no immediate signs of injury on the body with it's head severed. From the presence of a rudimentary uniform you guess this was probably an officer of some kind.
There are two unusual things here. 1) Thia body appears to have frostbite. Like severe, probably the cause of death, levels of frostbite. In the sweltering hot jungle. Second, the head appears to have been removed after death. Not enough bmood spatter for it to have been otherwise
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At the sight and smell of the gore, Arisira steels her stomach, willing herself to continue moving forward. Shifting around the inside of the first room, she takes a moment to examine the headless bodies in the training room.
Setting aside the emotion of the moment, she tries to objectively consider the implications of their findings"Why take the heads? Tribal customs might use them as a means of intimidation- but they are not 'on display'. Besides, why take these heads and not those of the bodies outside?"
"That makes five bodies now. They weren't used for food, nor set up to send a message or a warning. The armory wasn't looted and weapons still lay about- so it wasn't about supplies. Something just doesn't make sense."
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Moving on, the halfling makes her way into the second room- peering over Antal's shoulder as he examines the bed.
"It seems the count is at six bodies now... Antal, the blood looks newer to me, though the officer doesn't seem to have many injuries. I mean, besides to obvious one..."
Pointing to the blood drippings on the floor, her eyes follow the trail to the ladder in the corner. "I suppose whoever is responsible for this took the officers head up the ladder with them? I guess it is up we go." Glancing around at the party, and back down at her bow, she adds "Say, would someone else mind leading the way up?"
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Vera moves into the room and carefully steps up to the body on the bed. She studies it and then looks up in alarm and confusion. "The body appears to have frostbite. Severe, probably the cause of death. We're in the jungle. Secondly, the head appears to have been removed after death. Not enough blood spatter for it to have been otherwise. This whole situation is getting stranger and stranger."
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Above, Antal moves into a scene of destruction.
All around he sees small clay statues smashed all over the floor.
A quick look at the clay reveals that they are statues to some of the popular local gods, like Erastil, Abadar, and Sarenrae. Further marring the scene are two mangled child-sized bodies all over the large table that probably once served as a make shift altar.
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As Vera begins to examine the bodies, praying to Cayden they do not belong to children Xanko, Shen, Antal and she begin to notice things that are askance. Quiet whispers fill their ears...
Vera notices that the bodies are not the lithe and slender bodies of children but rather...halflings. Pierced through a dozen times a piece with crossbow bolts.
The shards of statues begin to rattle with force on the floor as if being disturbed by large and powerful beings.
Lightly at first there are mutterings in polyglot and Halfling
You understand the mutterings.
"Theyre back...theyre back to finish us off
We're doomed...there are too many"
Help us....
Oh Gozreh save us....
Before long they all feel the powerful compulsion to grab the crossbow bolt and stab themselves.
Almost as if theyre being forced by the same powerful forces that did this to the halflings.
Antal and Xanko reach for the gore covered bolts and remove them from the bodies and proceed to stab themselves hard.
The two leave the bolts in their own chests and slowly the shaking and the whispers fade...
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Mak'da hurries up the ladder after the others and looks around in alarm. What happened here, what the...what re you two doing?
She quickly moves to help Xanko and Antal remove the bolts. I heard voices, something about being doomed, people coming back, too many. I suspect this place is haunted by those who died here. We should finish our exploration quickly.
Behind her T'Krit scrambles up the ladder.
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Antal looks down at the crossbow bolt, a bit stunned at what he's done.
As the others enter he snaps out of his thoughts. "We have to put them to rest and clean up these broken statues." He gestures around him. He moves to start cleaning.
Is this what awaits me in tombs? The speaking dead or something else? This is why we need the scarabs.
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Arisira follows Mak'da and T'krit up the ladder, taking one last glance at the carnage sprawled out before her. She hears yelling and cries of pain from above- but is unable to arrive in time to witness the events that unfold.
Pulling herself up onto the landing, she is confronted with the sight of a bolt being pulled from Antal's chest. "What happened to you? Oh I am so sorry I asked you to go first!"
Seeing no threat, she is slow to draw her bow. Instead, she glances around the room and attempts to determine what is going on.