The beast fell around 100' out from the island into the river. You're unsure how deep the water is out there and the riverbed is extremely soft and mushy.
Araxiel growls a little in annoyance at the attack and brushes off his armor, putting his crossbow back on his belt and hoisting his mace over his shoulder.
"Eh, let it stay there and rot. If you must bring something, one of them there stingers should do well enough."
His beast-like eyes scan the area around them, seeing if anything else is lurking nearby.
Araxiel wanders the southern half of the island, looking around for signs of danger. Nothing is found but he almost trips over the remains of an old campfire.
He clears some growth away to discover a waterskin, the aged remnants of some trail rations, and a curious small glass vial. The bottom of the vial contains the dried remains of a green substance.
Drau looks around and heads off to the tree the manticore nest is in.
"If I were a manticore - and I'm not, by the way - where would I keep my valuables?" He may or may not be talking to himself. He's a little vague. "In the nest, of course!" Drau cackles and rubs his hands together, pleased with himself. His robes fall back into place. He hitches them up once more, ready to tackle the tree. The robes settle quietly back into place. Again.
(Taking 10 to climb the tree.)
After some struggling, Drau manages to crawl his way up the three tress that hold the nest. He sits on the edge and looks in.
Two things are immediately apparent; the nest is quite new, and there's a dead dwarf in it as opposed to adorable manticore babies. A quick look over the dwarf shows him to be bloated and heavily gnawed. The corpse wears a colorful patchwork coat covered in pockets. A couple of items lie at his side as well. You find:
a vial of silvery oil
a silver hip flask
a crimson felt purse containing 31 pp and 22 gp
a shortsword of high quality
a bend oak stick that appears to be a wand of some kind
"There are no cute babies in here!" Drau shouts to everyone, a little disappointed. "I should have liked to have taken one as a pet! It would be both adorable and fearsome!" He chuckles to himself. "I do have a silvery oily thing in a flask, a lovely hip flask - the contents of which I would be happy to sample with everyone - some money, a very nice short sword, and - ooh, a wand!" He waves it experimentally. "Who wants what? Slayers, keepers, right folks? Eh? I'm keeping the wand." He grins brilliantly.
Drau casts detect magic to make sure the stick actually is a wand and not just a high quality stick.
Araxiel gingerly picks up the glass vial, holding it up to the light for a second before walking back towards the rest of the group.
"Looks like someone made camp just over there. Not much of interest there, cept this."
He points a clawed finger in the direction of the campfire remains, then holds up the vial and looks up at Drau and puts his free hand on his waist.
"So when yer finished up yonder, maybe you could take a looksie."
He keeps it in his hand so that he can easily hand it off to the elf whenever he gets down from his arboreal expedition.
Otis stands guard as the others look around.
Calls over to Drau "I would not mind looking at that vial of oil you found up there."
Detect evil
Drau takes the vial and looks it over with everything else, chanting detect magic. The wand and oil glow with the flask showing a bit of residual magic.
The wand is identified as a wand of ghost sound with 22 charges remaining.
Drau looks at the vial without having a clue what its aura means, and then unstoppers it for a sniff. It smells sharp and metallic but he is unable to identify it.
Drau sniffs the flask and is delighted to discover it smells like carrots. Although not a spell he'd use personally, he recognizes the carrot smell as a component of a darkvision spell. This was a potion of darkvision.
Drau passes the vial down to Otis to have a look and Rowena peers over his shoulder, casting a spell.
She identifies the oil as oil of keen edge.
Secondous is able to collect ten manticore quills in all, which are roughly the size of a dagger and nastily barbed. Drau passes the hip flask to Secondous. A quick sniff tells you it is brandy, very high quality brandy.
Rowena scans the Manticore's body. "I wonder if the swampers confused the Manticore for The Beast..."she wonders out loud.
She suddenly eyes the wand of ghost sound. "Mind if I take this...? She loved weird looking wands.
The nest is a few weeks old - the manticore is likely to have arrived well after the incident with The Beast. The villagers also described the Beast as being bipedal and swearing a lot.
"If its alright with everyone I can make good use of this nice vial of keen edge"
"I agree this place has been a bit of a dead end."
Otis chuckles to himself
"I'm not done!" Drau calls over his shoulder, heading away from the group. "Just give me a few more minutes. It's not like it's a big island or anything. What if we're missing something?" He turns around and looks at everyone. "A man's... er... beast's life is at stake here! It is our duty to make sure we learn the entire truth! Which means one thing: we will leave no crevice untouched!"
Drau takes 20 to search the island thoroughly.
Drau begins to comb over the entire island and as he walks among several graves he notices curious depressions in the earth. While most the graves had a bit of dirt mounded over, six were actually sagging depressions, as if they had collapsed in from below. A cursory dig shows that the six graves are empty.
Further investigation on the west side of the island uncovers a coracle boat. Inside of the boat can be seen some dried blood and a few objects.
Inside of the boat:
- A moldy leather travel bag containing an artisan's outfit
- An oar
- A vile, strange object that upon closer inspection appears to be a a detached human face
In addition, a length of rope stretches from the boat into the waters below. It appears to have a heavy weight on the other end that will require someone strong to pull up.
Otis is ashamed he gave up so easy and helps Drau's search. "You are right Drau, we must search out the truth."
Really not sure where to begin searching Otis wanders over to where the other boat is. He takes up the rope that is attached to boat and gives a mighty pull
Otis begins to help out with the search and then almost falls into the swamp. Giving up on that exercise, he instead heads over to the coracle. With a mighty heave, he drags up the rope, which reveals a large bag on the other end.
Despite having been under water, the fabric of the old bag is heavily stained with blood. The bag is a huge burlap sack, large enough to hold a body. After dumping it out on the coracle the following are revealed:
- some rope
- a gag
- a rusted lantern
- a trio of heavy knives
- a rusted shovel
"Someone has dug up these 6 graves and who ever this boat belongs to is involved I'm sure, though I'm not sure why the boat is still here for us to find."
Otis is use to vile and strange things, he picks up the human face for a closer look.
Witness' Story
The Beast had been terrifying the village for months - people were disappearing if they went out at night. This escalated into outright attacks on huts. So the villagers organized an ambush whereby they chased The Beast to the Boneyard. At the island it was attacked by a blood caiman which grabbed onto the Beast's shoulder and dragged into the water. The villagers have not returned to the Boneyard since.
Clues Found on the Island
A manticore and its nest were found here. The nest contained a body. However, the manticore, nest, and body are recent while the alleged death of the Beast occurred many months ago.
A campsite was discovered with the remnants of a potion of darkvision.
A coracle has been left here for a while.
The coracle contained rope, a leather travel bag with an artisan's outfit, and an expertly-detached human face.
Attached to the coracle was a bag submerged in the water. This bag is large enough for a body. It contains a gag, a lantern, heavy knives, rope, and a shovel.
Six graves have been disturbed and do not hold bodies.
Otis holds up and examines the face very carefully, wrinkling his nose in distaste. It has been remarkably well-preserved in the swamp water. The face looks to have been expertly removed with precision tools.
Araxiel searches around and in the graves to see if there is anything to be found.
Araxiel begins going over areas that Drau passed through to provide a second set of eyes, and after some intensive searching he discovers a leather-bound case in the undergrowth.
Opening the case, it reveals very fine, high-quality tools. They are made of silver with amethyst handles.
As he examines the tools he notices that there is a small raven symbol on the handle.
Rowena recognizes the tools as a surgical tool set used by physicians and chirugeons.
Witness' Story
The Beast had been terrifying the village for months - people were disappearing if they went out at night. This escalated into outright attacks on huts. So the villagers organized an ambush whereby they chased The Beast to the Boneyard. At the island it was attacked by a blood caiman which grabbed onto the Beast's shoulder and dragged into the water. The villagers have not returned to the Boneyard since.
Clues Found on the Island
A manticore and its nest were found here. The nest contained a body. However, the manticore, nest, and body are recent while the alleged death of the Beast occurred many months ago.
A campsite was discovered with the remnants of a potion of darkvision.
A coracle has been left here for a while.
The coracle contained rope, a leather travel bag with an artisan's outfit, and an expertly-detached human face.
Attached to the coracle was a bag submerged in the water. This bag is large enough for a body. It contains a gag, a lantern, heavy knives, rope, and a shovel.
Six graves have been disturbed and do not hold bodies.
A high-quality surgical tool set was found in the bushes. The tools are jewel-encrusted and have a raven marked on them.
"What in the hells is that?! Drau cries, looking at the face in horror. "Well that is vile. Just utterly vile. Wow. Gross. I think I can feel my last meal coming back up to join us. Yikes, guys. It's a face. Otis is carrying a face. Another face. A totally gross face. Gross. Wow." Drau shudders.
"Face aside," he continues after a few moments, "I may have a theory. The face is interesting though. The cuts are very precise. Can golems even do that?" He looks to see if anyone is paying attention, before carrying on, regardless of who is seems to be actively listening to him.
"There are empty graves, yes? Six of them. But there is also a bag big enough for a body. Usually bodies go in the graves, so they should be filling up, not emptying out. I speculate that someone who has figured out how to navigate using these infernal contraptions-" He points at the coracle as though it is a hideous, snarling creature. "-and has been stealing bodies. Although that doesn't necessarily explain the gag. Who needs to gag a dead man? What is wrong with these swamp people?"
"And a darkvision potion? Do golems need those?" the professor muses and taps his chin thoughtfully. Then his eyes grow wide with terror.
"That other boat is here. It's been here a while. Boats are need to cross the water. So it would make sense, yes, that where the boat goes, so goes the owner?" Drau looks around, wild-eyed. "Are we even alone here?!"
Drau recalls that flesh golems have darkvision and although he would need to see The Beast personally, it is highly unlikely they could use surgeon's tools with any skill.
You have gone over the island completely and you are pretty confident you are alone here.
"We might be able to find the owner of those tools from that raven mark, if its a makers mark."
"I think we best be off this island before night falls, we should make are way back to the village to ask a few more questions of good sir Lazne. Maybe he can put a name to this face."
Otis makes to give the face to Drau
"I'd wager that darkvision potion was for whoever came out here so they could work without torches... might draw unnecessary attention to themselves. For the gag, who knows... maybe there ain't parts you can't get from the dead - they gotta be fresh."
Araxiel shrugs. "Though, if I were choppin' up dead folk, I don't think this would be the best place ta stitch 'em together."
"I think the graves may belong to those kids who disappeared. The ones that the beast 'killed.'" Rowena looks at the vile face thing. "Maybe someone's experimenting with necromancy...or maybe someone just likes to torture. In any case, I think the person who did this is probably using the Beast as a fall guy to capture people and...slaughter them later on. After all, the beast isn't really smart enough to do that." She points at the intricately cut face mask.
"I hate to jump to conclusions, but my first thought is that it's Karl. Remember him? The doctor's assistant? He'd certainly have the skill for this. And he'd probably use darkvision to do it at night."
She examines at the gag and the wet bag. "As for the gag...well, maybe someone saw something."
The five of you continue to discuss theories as you boat back to Morast. By the time you arrive it is late afternoon.
After returning the boat you are greeted by Elder Lazne, without a mob this time. He spits.
"Hmph. Well yer back. Hope that'll be the last I see of yas. Find what ye were lookin' fer?"
"We have found a number of things to be honest."
Otis points to the boat and the pile of things that were collected from the island.
"But there is one thing that is actually quite vile, but if you are up for it we would like to have a look and see if you can identify it. I will understand if you do not want to look at something so vile."
Otis holds the face in his hand but has it covered for now. And he waits to see if Lazan will have a look at it
Lazne recoils in horror as he looks at the face, but the tough swamper grumbles something.
"Show it to me! What was that vile creature up to?"
Leaning in, Lazne grumbles.
"I ne'er ferget a face. That be ol' Nan Klebem! Poacher. He used t'visit us once a month or so t'sell goods. We ain't seen that poor fella fer a year."
"Poacher? Of what?" Rowena was brimming with questions, but didn't want to overwhelm the swamper with her curiosity. She hesitated.
"Do you know where he used to live?" Perhaps they could search the man's house if it was abandoned. Maybe he had family they could speak with in town.
Lazne shrugs at Rowena.
"We ain't much fer askin' questions 'round these parts. But I reckon he came from out near t'woods in t'northwest. Mebbe someone in Lepidstadt will be knowin' more."
He then looks over the manticore spines.
"Ain't ne'er seen those things afore. Look like... big thorns or summin'."
"Well I think our best leads are the set of surgical tools and this poacher fellow. I think we should make leave of this good man to his business and head back to Lepidstadt."
Your conversation with Lazne apparently at an end, you all make your way back to Lepidstadt. The city is still hung over from last night's party and the group is generally unaccosted upon entry into the city.
Any evidence needs to be discussed with Barrister Gustav Kaple, which also allows you a chance to interview and examine The Beast. You have also resolved to look in to the raven mark on the tools and ask about the missing poacher.
Rowena heads to the bar once again, hoping no one will remember her face from the bear fiasco. She decides to leave Toypurnia outside so as not to scare the locals. "Toy, stay."
Toypurnia elects to remain near the gates of the city. Rowena heads over to a local bar as you enter Lepidstadt.
The inside of the bar is relatively sparse considering the massive celebration that took place yesterday, but a few people are still drinking heavily. As Rowena steps in there are a lot of angry stares but nobody seems willing to make trouble.
"Can I get you a drink, Mistress?" Drau asks Rowena, wringing his hands nervously. "Perhaps a Coconut Blade? A Doomed Scarlet? Maybe a finger of Jumbo Jim's Grape Scotch? My personal favourite is the Larger Drink, though to be honest, I don't like the taste as much as I like ordering it. A Larger Drink please, busty wench!" He laughs to himself and goes up to the bar.
"Excuse me!" he calls to the staff behind the bar. "If one of yon delightfully busty wenches has just a moment, I'd like to place an order." He smiles sweetly. "I'd like a Philanthropist's Mystery and if I could also order a Tristram Shandy for the lovely lady here, there'd be an extra coin in it."
Otis stands at the door way of the bar scanning the bar. He walks over to the bar.
Araxiel as well heads off, following his brother along the ground to make sure he doesn't get into trouble.
"Oi, Ke'lel. We shouldn't stay out too late. I've had a bad feeling creeping up on me the longer we've stayed here and I don't reckon I want to invite more trouble than we already have."
He looks around as they walk (and climb), not only keeping an eye out for anything unsavory lurking in the shadows of the city, but also for any establishments that might be familiar with the poacher; fur traders, outfitters, tanners and the like.