Tess kneels down in front of it and tries to say something, describing in Common what she says for her companions.
"I'm Tess, who are you?"
"Did...did you get it?" asks Posh, leaping to his feet. The small man stows his book and jumps up and down outside the window. "I can't see....did they get him?"
I obviously don't know. I will continue to wait, just in case.
The little creature whimpers pathetically due to the near mortal wound in its side. Instead of developing an intelligent response, it jerks a few times, then vomits out the contents of its stomach. The acrid smell is almost instantly enough to cause one's eyes to well with tears. It's difficult to tell if its sickness is due to its wounds or the copious amount of alcohol it just ingested.
Weakly, the creature speaks with Tess.
It's asking us why we attacked it. I guess me especially...
Tess turns to the creature.
"I am sorry. We were hit lots too, we are scared."
Jader is impressed by Tess’s ability to speak with the creature he tells her the following ”Tess, let the creature know that if it can help us we would be willing to help it too. Including healing the damage we caused. Then finally if it doesn’t respond to anything like that, then tell it we will set it free if it lets us know everything it knows about what happened here”
Tess nods. It's a lot of words, but I'll try.
She reiterates what Jader said in simple terms, and adds another apology for hitting it with the pointy stick for good measure.
The little creature listens intently to Tess's words, but you guess that it is simply concentrating so hard because its head is swimming from the alcohol. It takes a moment to digest the rather crude interpretation, then nods slowly.
How help? Don't want to die, so help. Not know what here but house and good drink. Men here before, but not here now...I come from down. It points at the floor, or presumably the ground underneath. Find no one here but plants that try to eat me, so find food, find drink, stay here...new home. It waves about to indicate its simple new abode.
Go now? It's unclear if it means for you to go...or it.
”Let’s bandage its wounds and be on our way”
Jader looks around to see if anyone can patch the creatures wounds then he says ”I have no skill for this sort of thing does anyone know better than me how to bandage wounds?”
Having heard only bits and pieces of a coversation, Posh attempts to piece it all together. 'We ran back her to stop its escape...trying to catch it alive. Jader was talking...said something...Creature, Damage, Try....Here...now he needs a bandage?
Looking over to Kar, he raises a hand to point at the window. "Ready yourself, it sounds like they aren't having much luck in there. I believe the beast is about to break through."
"Not me, I'm afraid. I'll try though, I feel bad for hurting him so much.
Heeding Posh's warning, Kar will draw his singham and kama and set himself a little closer to the window. No one is screaming in pain, so hopefully it's only evading them and not killing them.
Jader opens the shudders to the window that Kar and Posh are waiting outside of
”It’s ok Kar and Posh if the creature wants to leave it can, but we are coming out just as soon as Tessamine finishes bandaging the creature up. Everyone perhaps we should look for more clues. Tessamine perhaps you can ask the creature how it got here “from down” it might be worth exploring”
Jader casually leaves the room and house that the choker inhabits
Tess does her best, after some reassurances that she wasn't going to further damage the little beast, to bandage it. Though the anatomy is different, a hole is a hole, and she patches it to the best of her ability.
Afterwards, the little creature nods and points....then turns slightly and points again, seemingly having some difficulty with its direction. You get the feeling it means "East", which would be inland. Come from dat way; holes in ground.
You get the idea that the little beast is either not very intelligent at all or not very forthcoming with information.
Jader will Detect Magic in and around the house before turning his back on it (still interested in the crack on the floor)
”Let us do any magic detection and any other divinations here that we want to do.
Then perhaps we can focus on the palisade. What are the thoughts from the rest of you. After investigations are complete in town then maybe we should head East assuming the creature knows what it was talking about”
Jader's detection shows a faint glow underneath the flooring where he'd seen the crack before.
Kar will move back into the house and take up a watchful stance over the injured creature. He will speak to the group at large, This creature seems like a scavenger, an opportunist. Are we able to trust it's word? What does any of you know of it's society? If they have one.
”Kar. Keep watching the creature I Detected some magic aura emanating from underneath this board and I wouldn’t want the creature deciding to attack when I am distracted”
Jader easily pries the board free and he searches for what could be emanating magic.
"It's small, already wounded and probably drunk. I highly doubt he poses any sort of threat for us. His information is limited, anyway. I say we let him go.
Of course, he's only one of presumably more. When we head east, into the island, we should be on our guard for others of his kind, hiding in holes, and more eager to bite our face off."
Vashina moves near to the door but doesn't leave the building. She keeps an eye on the situation but keeps her hands away from her weapons so the situation doesn't escalate back to violence.
"Somthing hidden down there, Jader? I wonder if the people who used to live here used that as their safe place to hide valuables?"
Walking in the front door in time to hear the end of Tessa's statement, he smiles "Perhaps you could tell him to let the others know we are their overloards? Err...friends...yeah. I mean friends." Winking at the woman for good measure, he turns to see what Jader discovered.
Kar glances at the others prying up the floor, then turns his attention back to the creature. He is considering ending it's life now and prevent any future threat from it. But he knows that the party is clearly in the "let it live" attitude. He considers.
Jader pulls up the floor board to reveal a longsword with a grip wrapped in green leather and gold wire, glowing with a pale emerald light. There is custom workmanship and engravings on the blade and hilt.
Tess listens to Posh's suggestion and nods. "That's not a bad idea."
She then tells the creature that more people like them are going to inhabit the town soon, and that this place might not be safe anymore for him and his ilk.
Jader inspects the sword as best as he can
”obviously this sword is magical but other than that I I don’t know anything more about it. Anyone able to determine more about it?”
Kar glances over, The sword is green.
”Wow Kar your deductive powers are unparalleled. Aside from The obvious can anyone discover the magical properties of this sword? And Kar it was almost funny, though in a not very funny way. I suppose that that is monk humor or is it just sarcasm?”
Kar looks over briefly before turning his attention back to the creature. I presumed that you were color blind. And how often do you see a green sword?
Kalathiel's visage twists a bit as he watches the others interrogate the little creature. Questioning and then patching up a choker, of all things. Very curious. Wouldn't have been my first instinct.
He listens to Tess interpret the creature's words. "I really must brush up on my language studies one of these days..." he mutters softly.
"Yes yes, we can all see the sword has a green glow. Perhaps you two can collaborate and write a paper on the sword and how it's green," Kalathiel interjects wryly. He leans in to inspect the weapon more closely. "Fascinating," he says, his eyes lighting up. "The craftsmanship on this blade is quite interesting. It's almost certainly Azlanti in origin. It doesn't match the kind of work done in the Inner Sea. I'll have to take a closer look at it when we get a chance." He leans back. "As for exactly what the green glow is, I'm afraid I couldn't say."
"Guys, don't fight. We're a team, remember? Sadly, I'm pretty bad at any sort of magical research myself... Shall we just head into the other buildings?"
”No fighting is intended just a few jests! At least from my part.…I’ll take this sword for now unless someone else can make better use of it? …I would prefer a Falchion like the one on my back, but this magical blade may be useful”
"Ah, my bad. Glad to see all is alright! I personally prefer my trident, as well. Whoever it takes, I'm sure it will see good use!"
"I know that Posh is better at this than me, but if i don't practice i won't get better." says Vashina.
She casts a minor spell to detect magical auras then concentrates on the sword.
"Well... It's definately enchanted, and I can certain agree that it's green." says a rather embarrassed sounding Vashina.
”Posh can you identify this sword”
He doesn’t wait for a response
”Well we should get moving on anywhere else around the perimeter that we should visit? if not let’s go to the palisade. What say the rest of you”
Kar sighs and steps away from the creature and holds his hand out for the sword. Looking it over, he begins to speak.
The sword is green. It is done intentionally as most weapon wraps are basic brown. It glows, meaning it is of a magical nature. That means that it is not easily accessible, so someone of wealth would need to have purchased it. Andor national colors contain no green, and there are no devices for noble houses on the weapon. In all probability, this weapon was found here and hidden intentionally.
This means two things. One, that someone has found ruins nearby and kept it secret. Otherwise, they would not have hidden the weapon. They may have disturbed something there and we should try and find them. Two, that whatever happened to these people happened quickly. This is a magic weapon. If there were ongoing attacks, they would have used this to defend themselves. If they chose to relocate, they would have taken this with them.
So yes, the sword being green is very useful and not to be ignored. Now, as to the next step, I suggest that who ever made the deal with this creature, he says creature with a sneer and a gesture to the choker, help me escort it out of the village so that we can be done with it.
Staring blankly towards Kar, the gnome seems lost in his own mind. Jerking suddenly, he glances over towards the sword in the monk's hand. "Oh, neat. That thing has been enhanced for accuracy and pain. Not sure why they chose green, but it'll light up a room like a torch."
"Tess would likely be your best bet there Kar, seems she's been chattin it up. Shall we search the rest of town now? Or would we be better off resting and setting out again in the morning?"
While Kar shares his thoughts, Tess' mouth slowly falls more and more open. She's impressed and surprised by the long analysis, as she was just starting to get used to him being a man of few words. She nods along, agreeing with almost everything he says.
Once he mentions the choker, she jumps up with a start.
"Ah, yes, you're right," she utters, and then kneels towards the choker once more. "Let's get you someplace away from the town."
Together, Kar and Tessamine lead the creature out of town, as Tessamine makes sure to repeatedly tell it of the merit of a friendship with the group of larger, much better armed, people. The choker seems completely surprised to be alive and being led out to safety, so thoughts of its own future dealings are perhaps a bit lacking. It nods steadily as it walks away from the group.
The rest of the group looks through the farmhouse, but find little of use save for the fancy sword and the half empty cask of a fine local brew. A fine place to stay, when the need arises, as this is one of the more sturdy homes in the village it seems.
”Let’s make note of this building it could be a good base of operations for us. In the very least we may be able to rest here when the time comes”
Jader gives the magic green sword a swing this way and that, before deciding that it is well balanced and will perform nicely for the time being.
”I can see Tessamine and Kar coming back. It looks like they want us to follow down near that intersection we passed earlier. Shall we?”
"We still haven't found anything that gives us a clue what has been going on here, so we should certainly keep looking. It's good to have somewhere safe we can fall back to and rest in." says Vashina as she slaps her hand against the reassuring sturdiness of the door frame.
After scouring the farmhouse and escorting the befuddled little choker away, the group heads back towards the intersection that they'd passed through before. The main street is still silent and still, though it shows wear of much foot traffic in the past. The cottages lining the street are still ominous in their emptiness.
As you walk through the main intersection, you see another garden just to the northeast of the main thoroughfare....and in the garden are some engorged mounds of dirt that look just like the ones that the ankhegs from a fight you'd rather forget had been using to move about.
Pointing towards the mounds, More ankhegs? Or another end of their lair?
Looking towards the mounds, Posh rubs his bruised leg. "Good eye. I don't know about you lot, but I would rather wait to face anymore of those things. At least, I'd rather face them from a distance."
Jader notes this new garden area with mounts similar to the other garden that had ankhegs. ”We can engage any possible ankhegs over there later let’s see what we can find within the palisade”.
You proceed north from the intersection and soon reach the palisade, over which you can see several larger buildings. The large wooden gate here can be barred from within, but is currently open, and the large wooden bar that would lock it leans against the fence. Beyond the gate is an unpaved road where homes have been built or are in various stages of construction.