After referencing the ancient map in the tower, you now know some of the ancient names for locations around the island. The base camp has been built at "Watchtower III" and the old buildings on the hill at the center of Zanas Tahn were once called the "Wheels of Heaven". Unfortunately for your present purposes, the same hill is not high enough to give a good view of the surrounding region.
If you wish to avoid the Faceless Temple for the time being, you could circle around the less-explored parts of the island in a counter-clockwise direction or consult with the wyrwoods at Hullhold again.
"Wish that I could remember everything that has transpired. I was in our operations center, and there was some sort of commotion. Then... things are blurry until I woke up. Weird flashes come through... like watching a puppet play where some jester held the strings to my arms and legs. I think I may have been forced to defend my captors?
"I'm a historian of sorts. I'm not really educated in the Azlanti culture, but my family was intrigued by them. Inspired perhaps. I came to find the same sort of calling. I take notes where I can, bring the excitement of discovery to my family, you understand. Let the finer brains of society determine the meaning of what I find."
As the party brings Invandi to their base camp, he pulls out a piece of chalk and sketches a quick copy of the map onto the back of his shield, occasionally pausing to sharpen the chalk point by scraping it against the edge of his shield.
If the party stays longer than an hour, he will also make a better version of the map in his journal in ink.
"I don't know what you all expect to find here, or your purpose. But once we get these others to safety, I am keen to continue investigating the island. I would gladly assist you if your objective carries you forward in that regard."
"We are looking for our friends, which these things stole from us!" Aurelian says fiercely.
After waiting for a time to ensure that the durable Azlanti oozes wouldn't resume activity, the group resumed their journey. You travel through the jungle across the island to the west, arriving at the opposite coast south of Hullhold before continuing your journey southward.
As you move along the coast, you come across tracks in the sand made by what appears to be heavily booted footprints. The group moved through the area in the same direction you are going, traveling five abreast in a uniform formation. One additional set of footprints moves more erratically, but otherwise looks similar.
As you continue southward, you spot the travelers in the distance. The figures gleam in the sun, but even from far away the mechanical nature of their movements shows them to be six constructs.
Zay listens to Invandi's tale with their head tilted to one side, curiosity plain enough. "Are all your family.... like you?" they say with a bit of hesitation, and a small chin-nod at the blue tinge to the shield-warrior's skin and hair.
After some discussion of the plans, Zay says: "I think Sarine can help the others keep the dominated under guard for now. Let's head out and do that exploring, yes... Invandi, I should describe to you the topography from above, when we get a chance. For your maps."
Later...
Zay shades their eyes with their hand and gazes at the distant figures that glitter in the sun. "Huh. Metal men? That's new. Well, I can cast some preparations on us before we close, if we think it'll go to a fight. I could also do some scouting, in the form of some innocuous animal? But I won't really know what I'm looking at.... So maybe we should try to stay together. I wonder if one of them is damaged, to make the faltering tracks."
Zay slings off their backpack. "Tatienne, I think you're the strongest of us-- there's a lot of items in here I can't get out once I shift. Mind carrying this for me? And doing that armoring spell?"
Zay is armored! They fish out a carved thigh-bone from their pack and murmur words over themselves.
Shifting into the form of a local fauna, Zay closes the distance to the constructs in the distance. Up closer, they can tell that the creatures are a clockwork variety, similar to other Azlanti-origin fabrications you have seen on both Ancorato and Zanas-Tahn.
Up closer, the odd construct out of the group is clearly not damaged but seems to be leading the others, moving back and forth across the formation as they traverse the beach. It seems equipped with some sort of metallic lash. The other five constructs all carry halberds. Despite the apparent age of the creatures and their weapons, all have weathered the ages very well and remain high quality.
Zay excuses themselves behind a bush, as is their custom when they change forms, and a sleek raven flies out from behind the shrubbery to go reconnoiter the metal men. The bird's wings shift minutely as it rides the air currents above the patrol squadron, if such it is, and then Zay wheels and returns to the others, debating between shoulders for a moment before landing on Aurelian's.
It's a perfectly intelligible voice that comes out of the bird, rather than a series of squawks: "Six total-- it looks like one's in charge of the others, the one with the different tread. Not injured after all-- directing, I think. It carries some sort of whip. You wouldn't think creatures of metal would be slaves... not sure what to make of that."
Zay pecks at a fly that was daring to come near Aurelian's majestic hair, gobbling it down before continuing. "They look extremely well made- beyond that, I don't know much about men of metal. I'm better with plants and animals," the bird sighs.
"I can make someone's skin a bit harder, if we're going closer. If those things have been here from the time of the Azlanti, they're very old, but they don't seem to have suffered for the age. I suppose we can't know their intentions until we approach, but I wouldn't be surprised if they treat us as trespassers."
"Yes, then Aurelian Fache will deal with them!" the swordsman declares with his usual sense of surety. "If one is keeping slaves, Aurelian will free them, and perhaps they will not attack us willingly?"
Invandi sucks in a little air in excitement. "Oooo". "That's an excellent idea, adding some different perspective from birds-eye would be fantastic."
"के तपाइँ मध्ये कोहि Azlanti बोल्नुहुन्छ? सायद यी निर्माणहरु आफ्नो रचनाकारहरुको भाषा सुन्न सक्नुहुन्छ?
Invandi looks around to see if anyone in the party understood him.
Zay looks blankly at Invandi. "Bless you?
"Maybe, Mister Fache. Do you want me to make you just a bit harder to hit...?"
"Hmm... can you describe them in more detail, Zay?" Tatienne asks, and draws forth more information from the bird, trying to think if she can identify these 'metal men' on description alone.
"They will not be able to hit Aurelian Fache, but if it will make you feel better, than Aurelian Fache would never say no," Aurelian declares.
He looks over at Invandi. "Aurelian heard you say something about Azlanti?"
"I'm glad you are so confident, Mister Fache. But yes, please soothe my worries, thank you..."
Aurelian's healthy, suntanned, perfect skin sadly takes on the rough wrinkled texture of bark, after the bird lightly headbutts his cheek. It's good Aurelian can't see it, probably.
"Let's try and stick near the waterline as we approach them," Zay suggests. "Worst case scenario, if we're getting a drubbing, I might be able to use water to slow them down and let us get away-- or, for that matter, I bet we swim better than people made of metal. They look like they'd sink. And I could always call a few sea creatures to our aid if I had to."
"Aurelian Fache is sure he will not need sea monsters to help," the swordsman says. "But hopefully -- for their sake -- they will not want to fight."
"I was just testing to see if anyone else was educated in the tongue of the Azlanti. I had picked up a bit before leaving Qadira, and it's been helpful here. Perhaps the metal men can communicate in the tongue of their masters?"
He listens to Zay's battle tactics. He turns his shield upside down like an empty pond and walks two fingers across it. "Wouldn't they just... walk across the bottom?"
Zay's expression clears at the clarifying of what foreign tongue Invandi was speaking. "Oh. Yes. Worth a try, at least.
"Yes, they might walk along the bottom," the crow agrees, "but it's hard to do so quickly, and we could swim along the surface, just as a bird can fly above a hunter who has no bow, yes? I don't think they had any ranged weapons that I saw. The point is, we could get away, if we had to."
The crow pauses a moment, shifting foot to foot on Aurelian's shoulder. "Shortly before your head cleared, Mister Invandi, we had to flee from some creatures of lightning. One of our number... didn't make it. So perhaps I'm overly paranoid now and thinking of always having a way to escape." The bird's wings shift a moment in the suggestion of a shrug.
"Anyway. With Mister Fache in the lead, and your linguistic skills, and Tatienne's knowledge, how can we fail? Shall we go closer, then?"
After observing the constructs from a difference, Tatienne recalls some pertinent information that she shares with the rest of you.
"These look like clockwork constructs. Weak to electricity, but otherwise sturdily built. Clockworks need to be wound through a mechanism on their body to continue operations and are programmed the same way. It's not impossible that they could be winding each other, but that wasn't common. They would otherwise need to use a winding station like the one we saw in the Faceless Temple. Given the ability to reprogram them, I don't think we can assume that they are still under orders from their creators."
"The five are likely clockwork soldiers. They were built for combat and their most common armament was magical halberds. Given the lack of wear on those weapons, that has to be what we're looking at."
"The other one is probably a clockwork overseer then. They were built for command functions and were able to carry out more complex orders than most clockworks."
"So, it seems we'll not have much luck talking with them." Tatienne finishes, staring into the distant direction of the clockwork soldiers. "But if a fight breaks out, perhaps if we concentrate on the overseer and eliminate it, the others will pause?"
Zay looks between the Taldan woman and the shield-bearer, curious to see which of them considers their tongue more glib.
"That's a good idea, Tatienne-- to drop the overseer if we can. Should, of course, it get ugly. I don't like fighting."
"Agreed," Taty nods, her mouth set in a firm, tense line. "Avoid putting us in any danger if at all possible. If we knew their, ah, directives, we could perhaps play to that, though your guess is as good as mine. How should we parley? What are we asking of them?"
The bird's wings flutter in a shrug. "To steal your own words: your guess is as good as mine. Maybe they're patrolling for invaders? We should try and sound like we're supposed to be here, I suppose, and see if we can learn something of their purpose... beyond that, I cannot think what a man of metal might know."
"Oh, someone else does know the tongue!" Invandi is clearly excited to share something in common with a member of the group. "Probably better if you do the talking, I'm likely to wander off topic."
"If they are made to work for someone else, they may be able to tell us about their master, their location, defenses and goals. I do like the idea of going after the overseer first. We should start with "Who are you and what is your purpose?"
"Yes, we can tell them we came from one of the places we have already explored," Aurelian says.
"Sounds good. I'm going to be staying above the fray and helping from there as needed. If things turn bad and it looks like we can't prevail, I can call some creatures into existence to keep them busy while we make our escape-- possibly by the sea."
The hawk flutters its wings and takes to the air.
"Excellent," Tatienne says, nodding. "Aurelian, stay close if you don't mind. I can take a punch, maybe two... but I don't want to risk it."
That said, Tatienne does what she can to remain hidden until close enough to the creatures to be within striking distance, ducking into nearby brush, darting from trees, and similar actions.
Stepping from behind a nearby palm tree, Tatienne stands as tall as she can - do clockwork warriors feel intimidated by size? An interesting question - and lets her voice resound around the beach.
"Hold! You, overseer! Why have you abandoned your station? Who programmed you to be here? What is your objective?"
There's nothing flowery about the tone of Taty's voice, her words short and clipped, to the point - as she guesses a clockwork automaton would have little use for nicities and flattery.
"Yes, Aurelian Fache will stay close enough you think he is on top of you," the swordsman replies. "Do not worry about anything getting between us."
The constructs notice Tatienne's approach before she announces herself. The formation of soldiers lines up just behind their leader with halberds raised offensively.
Awkardly, the overseer speaks at the same time as Tatienne.
Unable to speak the language of the metal men, Zay simply rides the currents of ocean air and keeps a watchful, gimlet eye on the figures below, watching for any sign of violence.
Taty stops, marveling at hearing the Azlanti language spoken from a denzien of times past, the explorer making note of subtle differences in the clockwork mechanism's dialect as opposed to her own study of the language. So engrossed is Taty that she nearly forgets to reply.
"We are in Zanas Tahn region 4A, under the authority of the Church of Amaznen. Our presence is not recognized. They want an authorization code. Err - also, Amaznen was one of the deities of the Azlanti, known as a god of invention and magic. It is said that Amaznen died during Earthfall, the event that destroyed Azlant."
Invandi stops at Tatienne's side and begins a chalk sketch of the metal overseer's profile onto the back of his shield.
"I don't know Amaznen" Invandi whispers, "Think it would educate us if we profess ignorance?"
"Tell them that Aurelian Fache is here under the authority of Aroden, to rescue people who have been taken here by monsters using foul magic," Aurelian suggests.
"Aroden was probably famous at the time of Earthfall, but he had not yet risen to divinity. Have you all come across any 'authorization codes' or names that I can give them? If not, be prepared to strike."
The hawk rides the currents above the little detente and says nothing of use.
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The fog rolled in from the shore, oddly moving in a jerky way, and a muttering coming from the center. As if by magic (it was magic) the fog dissapated, and a hulking half-orc covered in kelp with a tricorne hat and a cheerful looking octopus became visible. The man seemed to be hitting his hand, as if he was trying to turn something off. The fog reappeared, and then disappeared again. "Blast it!" the half-orc said, until he gently *booped* something in his hand, and the fog was gone. "Aye, there we go" he looked satified. He itched his side, and grabbed a little crab - gently - that was attached to him, tossing it lightly back into the sea. "Hmmm." He looked up at the watchtower, and the various folks milling about - trying to clear the ruins.
He snapped his fingers, "just what we're lookin' for, right buddy?" The little octopus waved his tentacles happily. "Aye, it does!" He grinned, and patted the octopus on the top of its head, then marched up the beach.
He was an imposing sight, but waved in a friendly way at the bedraggled survivors. The little octopus waved too. "AHOY!" he called out, "ye landlubbers look like yer in dire need of help." They all backed away from him. He grinned again, and approached the exhausted folk "well, this is a fine kettle of fish, got any ale?" The people seemed to have no ale.
Houghton sighed, and put his hands on his hips, "well, this'll be a ruin or summat of the Azlanti, if my reckoning is to be believed, and that means treasure. You folks got any treasure hunters in the mix, or be ye all... " he gestured vaguely, "er, beggin' yer pardons, not-adventurer types?" He looked around until he spotted the closest people carrying a bunch of ridiculous items, and made a beeline to them.
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When they'd been making their morning preparations, Zay had glanced towards the ocean once, then twice, then again...
"A cloud just walked out of the sea," they said to nobody in particular. "No. Wait. A man. Hmmmn..."
When 'the man' started making his way towards the smaller group of, yes, armed people, Zay moved to meet him in turn. Zay was not carrying too much that was all that ridiculous, really-- one battered leather rucksack, but no visible weapons, armor, glowing runes, or the like. They looked no more than late teens, with disheveled hair the color of straw, blue-green eyes, and a suntanned body that's all bony elbows and calluses on wiry hands. Though Zay stood no more than five and a half feet, they looked up at the looming half-orc with only light curiosity and no hint of fear.
"Hello there. Did Gozreh send you?" Zay asked frankly.
While Zay didn't look particularly ridiculous, the same couldn't be said of Tatienne Talbot. Wiry and obviously strong, she carried a load of equipment that belied her average height and frame. Equipment and trinkets dangling from her pack, a well-used longspear strapped to it as well, and a wide brimmed hat perched atop the woman's head cast her head in shadow. Her clothes were perhaps less ridiculous than her pack and weapon, sensible and muted and covered in mud.
"That was quite an entrance, Gozreh's friend," Taty commented, a small smile playing on her face.
Turning back to the clockwork overseer, Taty snarls. Her voice bellows across the beach, commanding and self-assured.
If/as soon as the overseer says or does anything hostile, Taty bellows, incredulous and imperious.
Houghton laughed heartily, ”nay, tis not the case. I can’t say I’ve endeared myself to old soggy bottom, much.” His eyes gleam ”nay, I’m afraid I’m protected by another. The black lady who fills me pockets with coin, and me belly with ale.” He gestures around the island, ”at least when the Kraken and I come out of our more… natural demesne.” The little octopus pointed at the water behind them.
He doffed his ragged looking tricorn at them, and bowed ”names Houghton, and I’m a treasure hunter of some renown. In service of course, to the Sea Banshee, Besmara.” The octopus seemed to wiggle its tentacles as if cheering. ”Well, more or less. Seems that I’ve entered into some arrangement with something, truth be told, and The Pirate Queen seems to have at least acquiesced. Who am I to argue?” He shrugged, and the little octopus wriggled. ”Tisn’t my place to proselytize, truth be told. Are you fine lot treasure hunters too? Or them landlubber pathfinders perchance? I’ve scoured the ocean floor lookin’ fer relics and the like. Half the time they’re guarded by strange wards or horrible creatures with too many eyes. But many of the tablets seemed to indicate this island was a source of riches untouched for an age.”
He rubs his hands together greedily.
"Oh."
And then the scraggly-headed blond turns away.
Zay only goes a few steps though, then turns back. "--well, perhaps Besmara and Gozreh decided to cooperate," they say, the idea just occurring to them. "You see, I'd asked Gozreh for help, recently. So when you appeared... well.
"No, I'm not hunting treasure much. Some of the others might. Miss Talbot," Zay gives her a small nod, "and Mister Abalast, they're hunting knowledge. Mister Fache is..."
Zay pauses, considering what Aurelian might be in search of. "Mister Fache is looking for eager bedmates and worthy opponents. Maybe both at the same time. Hm. That could get complicated...
"Anyway. Maybe there's treasure here. Mostly there's dying and fighting.
[b]"I'm Zay. Hello, Houghton."
Aurelian gives a half-bow to the man, who seems amiable enough, but keeps a hand near his sword's hilt. Ge cuts a lithe figure, with his shirt hanging slightly open. His teeth, bright white, contrast sharply with his tanned skin and brown hair.
"Aurelian Fache," he says by way of this introduction. "Who is this black lady you speak of? Perhaps she has had the pleasure of making Aurelian Fache's acquaintance."
He turns at Zay's comments.
"No, Aurelian Fache is looking for his lovers, who were stolen from him. If he is unable to recover them, he shall seek vengeance instead against the body snatchers!"
His cheerful demeanor falls away with an intense look of determination.
Houghton chuckles, ”nay lad, a winning smile and skill with a blade tisn’t enough for the black lady to take notice of ye.” He wrinkles his nose a bit ”but a man’s gotta have goals I suppose.”
He slaps his hands together, ”well - ye all seem like amiable folk, and I may be a pirate and a scallywag, but I keep me word… mostly … and afford mercy to me enemies. Said mercy may be short lived - given the capricious nature of the sea, but it’s more than some get. So long as we get treasures - either secrets or artifacts of value, I could stick with ye folk. I will help as I can, if ye would have me. Do we have an accord?” He extends his hand jovially.
He’s not lying, but he’s leaving something out of some of his “admitted behaviors”.
Zay gives Houghton another up-and-down, assessing look, with their blue-green eyes probing, and bright as sunlight off the sea.
"The sea is capricious," Zay says after a pause. "She can be kindly, or cruel. She holds many secrets in her depths. The surface only hints at what lies below.
"But the tide has a way of revealing the truth eventually, too. Things wash up. Are exposed to the light of day.
"But as the sea brought you, I will take you. I've heard it said that Gozreh's winds blow not what you ask for but what you need, if you're lucky....
"I can speak only for myself, however."
Still, Zay lightly touches their palm to the much bigger hand of Houghton, withdrawing it swiftly. Houghton can probably still notice that there's light webbing between Zay's thin, knobby fingers.
"If you wish to help, Aurelian Fache will not turn that down. But be warned that these islands have been dangerous, and Aurelian can only protect so many people at once," the swordsman says, clasping the newcomer's hand.
"How many people will I first meet as vapor this week?" Invandi wonders aloud.
"Welcome Houghton, what's the name of your many-legged friend there?" Invandi listens to Houghton's story, silently sketching the Besmaran and his octopus, along with their names on his shield.
Upon hearing the clockwork man ask for an authorization code, Invandi quickly summons a thick journal from his haversack and pores through it.
After it finishes speaking in Azlanti, the overseer emits a high-pitched squeal and the other clockwork soldiers immediately raise their halberds to attack.
Reacting quickly to the order given, two of the constructs rush forward to attack.
Reacting quickly to the order given, two of the constructs rush forward to attack, striking out with their flashing halberds.