You proceed to the east from the tool shed after marking the building as particularly useful. Ahead of you are two long, rectangular buildings constructed entirely from planks on a wooden frame, with a pitched thatched roof. Each building has two doorframes on the side of the buildings opposite the palisade, but lacks doors. Four window frames open into either side of the long walls, a few of which have no cover and others only a canvas draped across the inside.
A partial view of the interior is possible from the doorways. Inside, the floors are had-packed earth, and along the walls are wooden bunk beds. Many of the pallet beds are covered with blankets that now gather dust. Those beds have sacks or tied bundles of clothes sitting at their feet.
"Looks like these might be temporary lodgings for the colonists, a place for them to sleep while their permanent residences were still being built."
Tess offers to sweep through the buildings on her own, noting that she can get out and ask for backup easily enough so the others won't be endangered.
She then moves into the first building and takes a good look around.
"I'll go in as well."
Kalathiel moves in behind Tess, acting as support.
Kar keeps a watch from outside.
Jader regrets not showing his ferocious courage in the face of possible danger, but his fresh wounds tell him to take it easy. At least until the real danger presents itself.
With this reasoning he elects to wait outside but to keep a sharp eye out for danger
Posh steps towards the doorway and casts a spell. Glancing inside, he steps back again.
"Holler if you run into trouble." he advises with a wink. "We'll be uh...watching your backs."
Tess moves to the southern building and conducts a thorough search. The building is definitely a "longhouse" or perhaps a barracks. Among the material at the end of the beds, she finds 321 silver pieces and 87 gold pieces. Posh detects no magic in this building, and Tess with Kal's help searches it quite well.
Heading into the next building, Posh's spell does indeed indicate two faint auras - one in one of the sacks at the bottom of a bed and another inside a mattress.
Tess moves in to conduct a search, but as she walks towards the center of the room, something swipes out at her from under a bunk!
The creature misses Tess by a mile, and scurries back under the bunk.
"We've got some trouble here, there's... something under that bunk over there."
"Indeed, I saw it too," Kalathiel nods, raising his blade and preparing to move forward. "Shall we get help, or take care of this ourselves?"
Kar continues to keep a watch on the surrounding area outside.
Jader looks inside the room casually and sees the others preparing for battle. So as not to throw off concentration he casts the message spell between him and Tess to try to quietly find out what is happening
Tess immediately responds. "There's something under this bunk here. It tried to lash out at us but failed."
She then grabs her trident and prepares to strike as soon as the unknown opponent strikes again.
Jader whisper to Tess
”I will use a spell to try and get the creature to come out. Maybe it will come out
Tessamine and Kal use their presumably superior intellect and higher ground to their advantage, and wait out the little creature, leaving a booted foot or two out and in view as a tasty morsel to entice the creature out.
True to form, a creature just like the ones found in the garden slips out from under the bunk to try and snatch away Tess's boot and the slim foot within.
You remember that Posh called these things "Ankhegs", though they, like this one, were undersized, perhaps young.
Tess immediately jabs down with her trident to hit the ankheg!
As soon as it appears, Kalathiel lunges at the creature with his rapier.
As the creature shows its head, Kal and Tess slam down their weapons at it with wild abandon, perhaps driven by the very natural fear of something biting off toes. They both connect and the buglike creature lets out a wild shriek as steaming blood flecks the floor and bed above.
The creature bites out at Tess's leg in spite of its pain.
It misses, being thrown off target by the new puncture wounds in its body. Hissing, it retreats back under the bed.
Those outside of the building can here the hissing screech and recognize the pained and angry sound as decidedly inhuman.
Tess
Kal
Ankheg
Jader
Posh
At the sounds of his companions Posh moves closer and looks in. "I don't see anything." he remarks...though he raises an arm agressively nonetheless.
"Come on out here beasty." calls out the old man playfully.
Prepare to cast Ray of Frost if/when the creature shows itself.
Jader make the incantation to create the ghost sound spell. He makes it sound like footsteps coming from spots away from the others but in locations they can see so the can make attacks when it pops out
Kar will move up and try to flip over the bed, removing this creature's cover.
Jader makes the noises a small distance away, but within a few quick strides of the group. Posh readies himself, and gives Kar a small nod. At that, Kar, heaves over the bunk to reveal a small tunnel burrowed through the wooden plank floor and the ground below. The ankheg sits perched atop it, apparently having come out of it in search for food.
Posh immediately lets loose his attack, and the one of the little creature's think back legs crackles with a thin ice covering.
Kalathiel lunges at the small ankheg, jabbing at it with his blade.
Right as the beast jumps out of the way of Kal's attack, Tess digs her trident into the beast.
The little beast dodges aside Kal's attack, but seems to skitter right into the path of Tessamine's plunging trident. It hisses out in pain, and clatters away a few feet, then stands up on its rear legs. Green spittle flies from its open maw, aimed at its punishing assailant.
Tess
Kal
Ankheg
Jader
Posh
Kar steps close and quickly kicks out twice with his foot.
Flurry of Blows
AUGH!!
Some of the acid hits Tess's face, breaking her focus, and she reflexively throws her trident at the ankheg.
Kalathiel curses under his breath as he jabs again at the ankheg.
After the creature's last-ditch attack, Kar falls upon it with wicked blows, battering it into something resembling a slimy green pancake with twitching insect legs sticking out at odd angles.
"Did we get it?" Tess lets out a sigh of relief. "Stormy sea, that really hur- Ow." she winces when she instinctively touches her acid-induced wound.
"Well, I think that's another building cleared, but just to be sure..."
"I...I guess we so Tess...That looks painful. We're gonna need a weak to rest when this is all done!" remarks the gnome, eyeing the tunnel. "You guys think these things burrowed through the whole camp?"
"I certainly hope not," Kalathiel replies. He sighs. "It's possible that they have done so, though. Something to look into after we've made sure the rest of the buildings are safe."
Tess makes her way about the barracks, and comes up with quite a haul - 321 sp and 87 gp. Also among the mundane possessions is a talisman that radiates magic.
You head to the south from the two barracks buildings, towards a large two story building to the east. As you do, you pass through what looks to be the "square" or central gathering space of the colony. At the center, in front of the large house, is a public well, and the bucket and rope seem to be intact. Just southwest of the well is a wooden scaffold with a set of steps. It looks suitable for use as a platform to address a large crowd, though it would take minimal effort to convert it into a gallows. North of the scaffold is the remnatn of a well-used community fire pit surrounded by stones, large enough for a reasonably sized bonfire. It's clear that no fire has been lit here for weeks.
Two buildings to the East remain unexplored - one large and stately, the other smaller and plain.
Kar points towards the smaller of the two.
Quicker to finish and leave us with only one left.
Eyeing the talisman, Posh shrugs. "Well it's magical but...I dunno what to tell you beyond that, sorry.... Oh! Tess, look over there." states the gnome, pointing ahead. Quickly inspecting the new item, he sighs. "Maybe they were right...perhaps I'm just too old for this stuff...I'm not seeming to be much use in determining what we found."
A bit disheartened, he slowly turns to hobble after Kar. "Yeah...I agree. I'll keep an eye open outside..."
Tess rests a hand on the old gnome's shoulder. "There now, Mister Nanjet. I can imagine this isn't exactly a comfortable situation in which to study the arcane, this abandoned colony. I'm sure once tomorrow comes and peace has returned, you'll be able to pore over it all in peace and figure it all out with ease."
She then follows Kar. "Let's be off. I'm eager to finish up. This day has been challenging for all of us, I imagine."
The name "Arkley" is carved into a wooden sign nailed next to the doorframe of this log cabin. You recognize the name from your briefing - a Rayland Arkley was the leader of the first group of colonists who arrived on the Liberty's Herald.
A single, closed door, faces northwest, and the structure has two wooden-shuttered windows. The architecture is otherwise the same as many of the other buildings. Kar finds the door to be unlocked, and walks inside. The inside of the house stands in contrast to most of the other buildings in the settlement in that it is relatively organized and tidy. It contains plain wooden furniture, with simple amenities such as wall racks for weapons and armor, a modest dining table and chairs, and a sitting chair with a makeshift cushion and footstool.
There is an open door into a separate bedroom, which features a wooden bed frame and pallet mattress, a boot rack, and a large unlocked chest of folded clothes and other personal items.
Tess tracks her finger along the table to see how dusty it is.
"Judging by the dust, this place must've been abandoned for the better part of a month, or a full month. It's noticeably... untouched, especially compared to the messes we've seen in other houses."
Jader joins the group in a thorough search of the building. Hopefully no more swarming pests are about to eat him alive
Kar will leave the building while the others search and take up his customary post as outside watch.
Tess and Jader scour the home with keen eyes, seeming to have an unexplainable sense of the place. Jader's height also helps, as he spots the corner of a folded parchment resting on top of a crossbeam, 9 feet above the floor. He moves over a chair and climbs atop it to reach up and grab it.
You can see that the parchment is actually four sheets that have been folded together and tightly creased. When unfolded, it proves to be the Talmandor's Bounty colony charter. It's fairly straightforward and resembles the one each of your signed - it declares the island and colonly to be under the protection of the nation of Andoran, outlines the colony's relationship with the Bountiful Venture Company, and enumerates the rights and responsibilities of all colonists. It bears the sealed signature of three members of the People's Council.
Of particular interest is the fact that this charter could also double as a passenger manifest fo the Liberty's Herald. Oddly, there are small check marks drawn next to a few of the names.
Tess finds a silver pocket watch in the cushions of one of the chairs. It also appears to function as a compass, and appears to be of original Azlanti design. This would be worth a small fortune to a collector.
Additionally, tucked under the mattress in the bedroom is a traveling spellbook. Twenty-nine pages have been used with twenty-one blank pages remaining. There's also a spell component pouch tied to a brass ring bound into the spine of the book.
"That's an interesting find." remarks Posh, eyeing the spellbook. "You know Rayland was a military man...not a spellcaster. Intriguing he'd have something like that. Mind if I take a look? I believe I'm the only one here that really has a use for spellbooks."
"Nice catch, Jader! Some curious finds here... I'd love to take a closer look at that manifest. Maybe we can gleam some interesting details from it."
In response to Posh, she nods. "It's all yours!"
Kar returns to the room and looks over the shoulder of whomever has the passenger manifest. He is clearly trying to scan it for a name.
The check marks on this manifest are of interest likely someone was using it as a “to-do” list. Hopefully it is not what I fear and these individuals are dead. It will be interesting to learn more about this
1st level - alarm, protection from evil, mage armor, mount, snowball, comprehend languages, sleep, magic missile
2nd level - summon monster II, aggressive thundercloud, invisibility, aboleth's lung, whispering wind, mud buddy, slipstream, shackle
Father Adran Felton
Livvy Felton
Silas Weatherbee
Una Hendrake
Dulin
Barnabas
Eliza Haniver
Edwin Fox
Farmer Levin
Mrs Levin + 2 children (names not recorded)
Raila Lyonhart
Antona Sedgewick
Faedwyr Trundlebrook
Daib Joiner
Geoff Tamor
Milo Cattenbury
Kalathiel chimes in. "Ah, I may have use of a spellbook as well. Depending on what sorts of spells are contained within, of course." The elf grabs the remaining extract vial from his belt and holds it up. "I can use them to devise different formulae for alchemical extracts. Perhaps I can borrow it once things settle down?"
"Likewise with that watch you found, Tess," he adds. "I hope I might be able to borrow that some time in the future for further study."