The manticore lands with a roar and a plume of debris and detritus thrown up by it's wings.
It turns to face the party as Vermundr closes in but Vala, Constantin and Kazamir meet it with a barrage of missiles, both arcane and formed of pure willpower. It is as if it is stood before a firing line as they all strike unerringly, tearing through it's thick hide and leaving neat, smoking holes.
It rears once in pain and instinct but even as it's wings flap as if to escape it collapses in a heap, blood seeping out onto the muddy ground.
Constantin catches his breath and says, "Can we find a way to prove that this was the beast that people saw? Maybe it had a lair, we could find remains of the caimans?"
Vermundr drops the bone spike he'd been preparing to toss and looks over the beast's remains. "He said the caiman took a piece out of its hide. Look for bite marks. If this was the beast the witnesses saw we can prove it by matching its wound to the caimans."
Vala nods and offers a grateful wave to Petros' floating, spectral sword cane. It, in turn, offers the group what seems to be a respectful tip, as if someone were wielding it and lowered the point of the blade toward the ground. It then shimmers from view and Vala works to maintain her simpler, luminous orbs as the group begins to scour the area and examine the monstrous corpse.
"Well, that could have gone worse. Still, let me patch you all up. It's no good to go tromping through some wet bog bleeding all over the place after all."
HP: 21/27
Negative Energy Resist 5
AC: 14 (10 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 13
F/R/W: +4/+1/+8 (+2 vs death effects, energy drain, negative energy, & necromancy)
Monstrous Insight used: 0/7
Wand of CLW: 14/50 remaining
Healing Hex targets:
Current Wandering Spirit: Life
Channel Energy (2d6) used: 0/5
Prepared spells
Orisons (4) | DC 14: dancing lights, disrupt undead, identify, read magic
Level 1 spells (3+1+1*) | DC 15: cure light wounds [ ], know the enemy* [ ], magic missile [X] [X], produce flame (CL3) [ ]
Level 2 spells (2+1+1*) | DC 16: glitterdust [X], scorching ray [ ], spiritual weapon [X], tongues [ ]
Vermundr remains still while Vala tends his wound.
As Vala works her healing magic, Vermundr kneels beside the corpse of the beast and examines it closely.
It's hide bears the marks of several battles, claw and tooth, though nothing stands out as grievous as the villager described. Also, from the swell of it's belly he surmises that the manticore was likely pregnant.
The island is around five hundred feet long and about as wide. Most of the trees have been cleared to allow for the burial ground and those that remain are stumpy, sickly looking specimens. This is true of the whole island except for one area in the southwest where a large patch of trees and undergrowth remain untouched, possibly because they did not interfere with the grave site. The lights of the swamp village are clearly visible everywhere on the island except through these trees.
North of the trees, but to the west of the island as a whole, the ground is far less boggy and you find the clay-like soil supports your weight quite easily.
At the furthest north point, a huge collection of tree branches and debris are stacked together, likely making up the manticores nest.
Finally, mostly collected in the centre of the island are the graves themselves, around three dozen or so in total.
"Wonder if it has an angry mate that'll be coming back home," muses Constantin.
"I think that it may well be the culprit, even absent the caiman's bite marks. Remember: the villagers never saw what was taking them until the night they saw the caiman take a bite of something. It may well have been the manticore - or manitcores - snatching villagers all along, and then Bland - or something like him - stumbled into the villagers' ambush.
I think we should check that nest-like thing first. If it is the manticore's nest, mayhap there are the remains of villagers there...
I think, though, " he says, a little sheepishly, " that maybe we should all stick together this time."
...knowing full well that splitting up had been his idea...
Treading mire carefully now, the group heads toward the nest.
The manticore’s nest is obviously a recent construction, and contains the remains of several small caiman and a variety of other small animals.
What draws your eye immediately though is the corpse of a dwarf traveler. The corpse wears a colorful patchwork coat with numerous pockets holding a vial of oil (Magic) a package of bodybalm, a silver hip flask still containing brandy (worth 30 gp), and a crimson felt purse containing 31 pp and 22 gp. A masterwork shortsword and a wand lie on the ground nearby.
Zed places a malevolent glowing hand on his spike wounds, sealing them. He follows the others to the manticore's lair, and he looks upon the dwarf corpse with sadness. He gingerly picks up the body and lays it down on a tree a fair distance away. He makes the dwarf look peaceful and says a brief prayer, then continues speaking. "Tonight when I am not burdened by the responsibilities of the living, I shall have you buried in earth to be reunited with your brothers and sisters." He comes back to the others. "I would like to bury him with his coat and his brandy. I have spent some time with dwarves and know that their elders often buried their dead with a drink to tide them over until they reached the boneyard."
While searching the more solid ground of the western shore of the boneyard Kazamir comes upon the remains of an old camp.
Around a small firepit are a waterskin (still half full of wine), the aged remnants of some trail rations, and a curious glass vial.
The bottom of the vial contains the dried remains of a green substance that smells vaguely of carrots.
"Some of those other graves were shallow. Maybe the manticore plucked a graverobber from his or her campsite?" Vala shrugs in ignorance as she sniffs the vial. "Hmm. Smells like carrots, at least."
"I've never heard of gravediggers needing to camp out to finish their task", Vermundr says in agreement with Hazel. "Maybe they weren't gravediggers at all."
The big northerner crouches by the campsite and tries to make sense of the tracks. He glances at Zed hoping the pale man will join him.
There are sadly no longer any discernable tracks, having been lost to the weather.
However, as Vermundr widens his search around the camp, he begins pushing through the trees than line the shore. As he pushes through the tangled brush he soon finds a coracle hidden in the trees along the southwest shore of the island.
The coracle contains an oar, a moldy leather travel bag with a damp artisan’s outfit (a shirt, breeches, shoes, and a cloth apron) inside.
He idly rummages through these, seeing they are of little value or interest but as he pushes the shirt aside he makes a gruesome discovery... what appears to be a detached human face sitting at the bottom of the boat!
"Blood and ashes!" Vermundr curses as he makes the grisly discovery. "No caiman or manticore did this. And I doubt our Beast has the finesse needed to peel a man's face off."
"I'm sorry, Vermundr, did you say peel a man's face off?"
Zed gives a dark frown at the face. "This is the kind of symbol a mentally unstable killer leaves behind." Zed tries to identify any other clues in the area, as well as anything he can learn from the features of the detached face.
Zed examines the grisly item. Though dried and now more like leather, it is clearer the face of a human female.
He then sets about examining the surrounding area and finds attached to the coracle is a rope, dangling down into the murky water.
He pulls on it and finds the rope is attached to a submerged sack. The bag is very large (big enough to hold a Medium-sized humanoid in fact) and has dried blood soaked into its fabric. The sack holds some rope, a gag, a rusted lantern, a trio of heavy knives, and a rusted shovel.
"Hmm. This is becoming more complex by the minute. How much time do we have, should we keep searching?"
Vala nods at the shovel. "Not a group of graverobbers then, but a lone one. One who liked to take grisly trophies afterward, it would seem." She says this last with plain disgust as she turns away from the gruesome mask.
"But what about anything to exonerate the Beast? We've heard tell of a giant caiman laying into a shadowy figure, but the only thing I can think of at this point is to check the Beast for evidence of the wound."
Kazamir rushes to the shoreline when Hazel cries out and though he curls his lip in disgust at the grisly discovery, he tries not to let it interfere with his concentration.
I would tend to agree with you Vala. he says. But there's enough circumstantial evidence here that something strange has been going on. Take this for instance... he indicates the vial they found a moment ago. ...at first I took it for the remnants of a magic potion, and in a way it is. I'm almost certain this is an alchemist's extract of Darkvision.
"Perhaps this will be enough to cast some doubt at least on the Beast's guilt", Vermundr muses as he looks over the items fished out of the water.
"Can we tell if it's been here since the alleged events the Beast is being blamed for? These people have been raised on stories of the Beast - we'll need something more solid than 'strange goings on' if the Beast is innocent and we want to convince anyone of that at the trial in the morning."
"I think that we can, at least, introduce doubt: No-one ever saw Bland actually grab anyone - the only time they actually saw him was the night of the ambush. We can bring back compelling evidence that a Manticore was preying here. The graverobber - just further muddies the waters. "
As the others talk, something else catches Constantin's attention in the shallow muddy water at the shore.
He leans over, trying his best not to get his feet any wetter than they already are and fishes something out.
He lets the item drop-drain for a few moments before taking a good look at it. It is a leather-bound case that when opened is revealed to be filled with fine tools, made of silver with amethyst handles.
These tools are of fine construction and of the type used by a surgeon or chirurgeon
Stamped on the handle of each tool is a small inscription of a raven
Vala shakes her head at Kazamir's suggestion and sighs, "I think you might be overestimating the people's generosity here, Kaz. I'm afraid simple doubt won't be enough to sway their minds: they'll need plain certainty. And even then we're likely to have some sticks in the mud who will remain adamantly convinced that the Beast is to blame for every ill in Leipstadt. This is a terribly steep hill we're climbing and we have lifetimes of fear we're contending against."
As he fishes the satchel from the muddy waters, Vala's eyebrows arch inquisitively. "Oh? What've you found there?"
"Unfortunately, I concur, Vala, but absent more proof..."
"What are these?" says Constantin, holding up one of the tools. "Tools of the trade for this grisly handiwork?"
"We take all of this back with us. Maybe someone in town can place these things."
By the time they are done searching the island thoroughly the villagers return from their hunting, several of the boats loaded with caimen.
The men once again expertly ferry you across the lake toward the dim lights of Morast.
Find what you were looking for? Lazne asks, as he helps haul the boats out of the water.
Vala offers a gesture that's half nod, half shrug. "Well, we found a manticore nesting on the isle. Can't say it's what we were looking for precisely, but at least it won't have the opportunity to harm any of you now."
She looks to the others then, "And that reminds me, I noticed some kind delicate stamp on the tools we found. A raven or somesuch. We'll likely want to see if anyone recognizes it once we're back to town." She then turns back to Lazne, "Unless that sounds like something you'd be familiar with?"
No idea what they are, never seen 'em before. And as for a Manticore, it musta taken up roost after we abandoned the Boneyard. No one wants to bury their dead where that thing bled. It wouldn't be right. Lazne replies
Vala shrugs and nods her head, thankful to Lazne for looking but unsurprised he didn't recognize the stamp. "It was pregnant too, I'm afraid. A good thing we found it when we did, before she had her cubs and you had a full nest on your hands, but you'll want to let everyone know to be watchful. The male's likely still at large."