Elizar takes the offered stones and brings them into the mud brick pantry, he drops two of them near the back of the building to try to force them out towards the sunlight, and holds the third in his hands, to try to herd them.
Jenner listens to the discussion, his grapnel still at the ready. "I have string, and some jerky in my pack. Could just try and lure the ugly little bugs out, then someone else can grab the crates," he suggests as a third plan.
"But Aurelian's notion sits best with me. If we can just move the light as we need to scatter 'em back from a crate, grab that crate, get it outside, repeat as necessary, I've no problem with that."
Ashlyn keeps an eye on the bugs as Elizar heads down there with his light stone. As Elizar tries to herd the bugs out, Ashlyn watches to see how the bugs react, trying to judge if Jenner's plan to scatter the bugs so we can drag the crates out might work.
The cockroaches crowd away from Elizar with the light, but none climb up the stairs or come out of the building. Your plan to ferry goods out using the light to create a 'safe space' might just work.
"Ah, we have solved it. Aurelian will go in and kill those bugs later. Now, where should we store this food, and where should we go next?"
Elizar moves all the food and crates that look usable outside for us while Ashlyn hangs around nearby, pointing out which barrels and crates he should bring out.
If no one moves them to another location by the time he's done, Ashlyn and Elizar start moving the boxes to a nearby empty building.
Sarine looks relieved to not have to face the cockroaches yet and grabs some of the supplies to help move them. She'll have to leave her mundane greatsword behind in the new storage building as well if she needs to use both of her arms, sheathing the new sword the party found.
FLeur will help move some of the lighter items while the cockroaches are held at bay by Eliazar and his light.
Evie, still repulsed by the crawling bugs, stays outside and volunteers to hold Sarine's greatsword. She looks inside with a mix of fascination, scholarly curiosity and repulsion.
You find various dried foodstuffs which will be off good use to the colony as a whole. There is also a teakwood box containing a wand.
"This is a wand of goodberry with um...charges... some charges..."
"Let's finish exploring the stockade. Maybe we'll find a clue about where everyone went."
"Yes, lets!" Aurelian agrees, joining Sarine, his sword drawn and ready for cockroaches or anything else he might be able to skewer.
Ashlyn pats Elizar on the shoulder, making a schlop sound. "Good job, pal."
She and Elizar then move to follow Sarine and Aurelian.
Evie looks interested at the wand and agrees with Fleur's appraisal.
"That wand may come in much more useful that we may have hoped as we may not have all the food we were hoping for with the lapse in regular agriculture! I presume they brought this with them to use until they set up there settlement effectively."
Evie follows the rest of the party.
The next building you approach is built of mud bricks, has a door facing east and one shattered window. Above the door is a wooden sign saying 'Tool House'. Inside the building you find a wide range of neatly stored tools. Hammers, hacksaws and all the other tools of the builders craft, as well as a wide range of farming implements, a few makeshift ladders and a couple of large barrels which prove to be filled with tar. One box on a high shelf has a small parchment tag saying "Emergency Only". It is locked.
Oddly this is possibly the most disturbing find so far. There is no way that the colonists could have relocated without all these tools. The Peregrine has bought some tools but always with the assumption that these would be available when you arrived - no-one could try and start a new village without them.
Perturbed by the connotations of this building you carry on to A5, the largest building on this side of the enclosure. It is an L-shaped building, also built of mud bricks on a wooden frame. On the north side, the side nearest you as you approach, you find only one wall supporting a thatched roof and a chimney. Beneath the chimney is a large forge, which connects with the chimney. The other accouterments of the smith's trade, a worktable, anvil, grindstone, and quenching barrel are all present. The western portion is enclosed by walls on all sides and has only a single window facing south and covered by a piece of canvas. The only door is on the eastern side and stands ajar.
Evie, searching around the tool house picks up a box from the shelf labelled "Emergency Only".
"I'd say this all counts as an emergency, let's have a look shall we?" She asks, but does not wait for an answer and inserts her lockpicks, manoeuvring them until she hears an evident click and the lock opens. She opens the lid carefully and the hinges squeak. This clearly hasn't been opened for a long time, they mustn't have thought there was much need. "Oh...its a suit to protect against swarms. This would have been useful to protect us against hose vile bugs." She says as she visibly shudders.
She looks around herself again and ponders:
"If they have left all of these tools, our first theory is definitely out. They did not find a more useful place to move the colony to on the Island as they would have taken this all with them. We will need to get someone back on the Peregrine to make a resource list of all the tools here and what is useful if we decide to stay."
-------------------------
"I presume this is where the first blacksmith was stationed and that Luetin would join him here. Not a surprise that noone is here. Can anyone figure out how long it may have been?"
"You're right Evelyn, but I think that we'd long since passed the point where that was a possibility. It isn't just these tools: the food they left behind was too valuable as well as some of the ledgers. Talmandor's Bounty may have been falling apart before we got here. They might have even started killing each other. But something happened that no one expected. Otherwise we'd see signs of them leaving in some form of good order or we'd see more bodies."
"Whatever did happen to them, I think we have to assume that it can happen to the Peregrine colonists as well. Until we know what it was, we probably can't afford to bring anyone else to this site at least."
"I think SArine is right... this place has a pall lying over it... whether they died of disease, internal strife, external threats, or even perhaps some kind of magical influence.. we know far too little yet to allow more colonists to come here... "
"You do not need a suit," Aurelian remonstrates Evie in gentle manner. "Aurelian Fache will protect you against any bugs or anything else!"
He nods at the others' comments.
"Yes, we must figure this out. Let us see if there are any other clues to be found, and then we shall go tell the lovely Ramona what has happened."
He actually seems a little subdued -- at least for Aurelian -- by the situation. This is something he can't simply kill with his sword or win over with his incredible good looks, winning smile and unbelievable charm.
"Why...thanks Aurelian." She says without knowing how else to respond. She thrusts the swarmsuit at him, trying to get rid of it herself, giving him little chance to decline. "It should be useful for you to help protect us from those vile bugs!As long as I don't have to go near them."
"You're definitely right Sarine, I'm just finding it hard to process this terrible situation!"
------------------
"We did see the other debris in the distance off to the north earlier. Perhaps we should head there when we have finished searching this smithy and then carry on up the coastline to report to Ramona so she knows what to expect and we can all plan together?
"Oh, yes, Aurelian Fache doesn't need any help, but he will take this off the lovely Evelyn's hands," he says.
"And, yes, that is Aurelian's plan too," he affirms.
"You're right," Ashlyn replies seriously. "This wasn't just people moving on, or internal strife... Something horrible happened here. We need to find out what it was, and we need to stop it. Or the same thing will happen all over again to the people we brought with us."
She shares a look with Elizar, then says, "I won't let that happen."
---
Ashlyn examines the smithy, but then shakes her head. "I can't tell how long it's been. Sorry."
She stands and looks around the compound, gaze eventually resting on the area in the distance we've yet to examine. She nods.
"I'm with you. Lead the way."
As the group turns away and strange yammering noise comes from behind you and a volley of daggers strike the party.
Out of the smithy come three goblin-like creatures, with short birstly fur and long tails. They all wield spears and jabber in high pitched tones. Two charge Elizar, screaming something in their tongue. The other leaps on Sarine, jabbing with his spear.
Elizar lets out an angry howl as daggers and spears fly past him. One of the spears stabs into his goopy back, but he's unharmed by the blow.
He turns and looks at the little beasts that struck him, face contorted in rage, and lashes out at the one in front of him twice.
"Look out!" Ashlyn exclaims a moment too late.
She steps forward, much to Elizar's displeasure, and throws a punch at the little goblin-like creature in front of her.
"What are these things?"
Fleur pulls out her crossbow and begins to sing the rousing tale of the great Varisian goblin hunter, Mikhail Ravieni and his forays into the swamps and forests around Magnimar and Sandpoint.
Jenner is probably absorbed in thinking about how creepy Elizar is for much of the walk through the other buildings, and jerks back only to the present when a crisis strikes.
"--salt and sulfur, what NOW," the dwarf grumps, and breaks into a dwarf-jog to try and circle around to the other side.
Sarine is stuck by the dagger and turns around to face the goblins. She draws her sword and attacks the creature that tried to stab her.
HP 10/13
AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13
Fort +2, Ref +5, Will -1 (0/1 reroll)
CMD 14 (16 vs. disarm)
Panache: 3/3 (0/1 deed reroll);
Effects: Courageously inspired (+1)
Aurelian lets out an involuntary yelp of surprise more than pain as the dagger scratches him.
"Ah, new cockroaches! You have made a mistake, little bugs!" he admonishes the creatures as he advances with sword drawn. "You meant to drop your daggers and run away, and instead you threw your daggers away!"
He slashes at the nearest creature, trying to determine what exactly it is, and prepares to defend himself is somehow it survives.
The party reacts with the speed and brutality that has so far characterised their exploration of Talmandor's Bounty. Sarine's greatsword cleaves a monkey goblin into two unequal parts while Aurelian drives his rapier through a goblin's eye - killing it just as efectively, but with rather less mess than Sarine.
Evie's new bow hums as she fires at the remaining goblin and between her, Elizar and Ashlyn the final goblin is defeated.
A warbling cry goes up and you all see two more monkey goblins flee from the forge and out of the stockade - clearly fearful of your combat prowess.
A thorough search of the forge building reveals a number of good pieces. A buckler, made of dark, remarkably light wood and mildly enchanted. A suit of chainmail made of of equally light metal and two well crafted machetes make up the total haul, until Evie comes out with a small bag filled with arrowheads.
Having cleared the forge you take a moment to rest. You have now cleared all the buildings in the nascent village. As a group you must now decide, continue to explore or head up the coast to rendezvous with the Peregrine? It has been perhaps three hours and the sun is high in the sky above you.
Ashlyn watches the monkey goblins flee in terror, watching to see which way they go.
After they're gone, Ashlyn give the gear they've found a cursory glance, before letting the others pick through it. She leaves the forge and looks off into the distance.
"We should check over there next," she remarks, pointing off into the distance . 'When you're done in there."
"Ah, very nice," Aurelian says, cleaning and sheathing his sword. "But if you try thrusting more than slashing you will make much less of a mess.
"And of course, if they RUN AWAY," he says loudly toward the wilderness, "they cannot see Aurelian Fache in all his glory!"
He hskaes his head.
"They did not even take these things, though Aurelian supposes that saves us the trouble of recovering them."
"That armor is really nice... if no one objects, I could wear that...I wouldn't mind being a bit more protected, especially if we're going into another field... After that though we should report back to the ship, so we can report our findings, meager though they are."
"I'd like to check out the wilds just outside of town, before heading out to meet the ship. There might be signs of survivors, or a clue as to what happened here." Ashlyn remarks.
"Aye, let's not forget about those tools and such. Do that, and then the field?"
Sarine rolls her eyes at Aurelian as she loses her combat focus. "Of course. Why didn't I see that before? Killing them neatly is the imperative," she grumbles.
Sarine drinks her Potion of Cure Light Wounds to heal the dagger wound.
With no one objecting, Fleur gets her leather armor off and slips into the chain shirt before proceeding.
Aurelian offers to help.
"It would be my pleasure! I have helped many people out of their armor."
"I'll bet you have!" He said people, not women... I wonder just how open minded he is. she thinks with a little smile to herself... She continues, "Your assistance is most welcome, Aurelian... there are so many straps and buckles on this leather armor."
Elizar watches Fleur intently.
Suddenly, Ashlyn's eyes widen. She stomps back to where Elizar lingers near Fleur and gives him a swat on the arm, scolding him in
She smiles in embarrassment at Fleur as she leads Elizar away.
"Don't mind us! Just go about your business!"
Elizar looks at Ashlyn and wails in