"The civilisations on this island date back to Ghol Ghan, although I believe it is supposed to be largely uninhabited now." Harmony offers. "The fort is a sensible place to start, if only to find out what happened to the last people that tried to settle this place. Although we should anchor further out and take one of the ships boats in, set a rendezvous a mile or two off shore as well. The ship can stand in again if we give a signal. Just in case."
It appears that Captain Vi is still just as concerned about her ship as ever.
Polli nods, then she goes to get her stuff together. Ready to explore the Siren's new port.
Present: "If'n they be gone a long while then we need ta be prepared fer two things; traps 'n' spirits bein' ready ta defend their home. Good thing ye knows someone what kin help with that." She smiles at the Captain, showing more confidence than she has in the past, even though she speaks quietly she has an air of being more in control of who she is.
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Polli's eyes go bright as the clear sky as Dony talks, a smile of the kind only her love sees, and a little trickle of tears down her cheeks. She rests her forehead against Dony's, getting very close, and whispers "there is nothing more in this world of ours than to have a child with you, Donosail Lishoni... but promise me we can have one And you'll still always have cookies for me and our little one." the kiss that follows stops time, shatters the last bricks of the walls the wizard had built to protect herself, and melts both of them into a puddle.
"I concur. The island is large enough we may need several days to clear it out. The fort provides us a place to rest and recover between."
Turning to her crew, she says "Everyone prepare yourselves to go ashore and clear the island. We may be a shore for awhile, so take care to bring anything that you may need."
"I have everything I need right here," Marisan asserts as she flexes her arms.
Tessa laughs and shakes her head with a hearty chuckle "Yes. Yes you do Mari."
"Well then, if everyone's ready, let us be on our way."
Val loads up her pack with the equipment she bought for their exploration as preparations are made to head to the island. She takes a moment, however, to slip away and meet Meiying in their quarters.
”I kind of hoped I’d never have to give that to you,” she confesses as Mei looks it over. Then she wraps her arms around her lover again, whispers something in her ear, and begins kissing her way from the other woman’s neck to her mouth. ”We probably have time for one quick one before anyone misses me, right?”
She reports back to the deck more minutes later than she meant to, out of breath and ready to explore.
With preparations made and instructions given to the crew that will remain behind, the senior officers set out on a longboat through the reefs and shoals to the eastern bay of the island.
This bay is about a mile and a half across and at the farthest point are the remains of the docks you saw from the ship. The stonework pylons that form the huge piers are clearly ancient, but the damage seems to have been recent. Large timbers jut out of the water, their sheared and shattered ends denoting a huge force that was applied in anger.
Three canoes and a catamaran are pulled up on the sand nearby. Beaching near them, your longboat looks like a child's toy compared to the huge, but crudely made crafts. The workmanship on the stone pylons is levels above whatever hands fashioned these crafts.
An ancient road constructed of huge slabs of granite leads from here to an equally ancient stone bridge that crosses the small river the spills into the bay. The source of the river is a cave at the base of the bluffs. The sound of rushing water that echoes from the cave indicates that attempting to navigate that waterway would be futile.
South of you the island rises to a wooded hill, while the road climbs up to the northwest along the bluff.
Val, currently in her four-armed form, draws her bow and swords as she cautiously approaches the giant boats. She examines them, and the beach around them, for any signs of recent use or activity.
"So someone, or something got angry and decided to smash as much as they could." Harmony says, looking around. "I'd imagine cyclops. It would make sense, they were once capable of marvels but these days they're largely savage. It would fit with the canoes. How about we follow the road upwards for now, see what the ancients thought was important enough to link with their harbor."
Polli casts a few spells as they make landfall, then flies out of the boat, hovering near the ground around the others. "I finished the last learning the language in cast the ruins held secrets written only in their tongue." she nods to Harmony then zips over to Tessa, casting a quick spell on the berry layering her in invisible force. "It will convert cuts and breaks into mere bruises, to a degree at least."
"Should we drag the longboat to the woods over there, and hide it?
Before traveling the road?" the mage worries.
Donomsail steps out of the boat and pauses, taking a moment getting used to her footing to no longer be rolling. Following the Captain she grabs ahold of Polli's hand. "Ah knows this not be the time nor place but mebbe after we get tha island claimed you 'n' me kin be picnicking here."
To the rest of the crew her comment is more business and less romantic. "Mebbe climb a wee bit, see tha layout o' tha land. Mebbe a good way ta see what types o' dangers we be facin'."
Looking closer at the wreckage of the docks, Valeria gets the impression that they were in use up until recently - within the last few weeks even. She can also see that what or whoever vandalized them did so with natural clubs. She finds traces of wood, tree bark, and leaves where the most damage was done.
You follow the road to the northwest, climbing up the steep incline to the bluff above. The road then passes through a cleared area between wooded groves for another mile or so before coming to another bridge.
Ancient carvings decorate this large stone bridge, which crosses a swift river flowing from the mountain to the north. A pair of statues of cyclops warriors stands at each end, with massive, fiery gemstones representing their singular, unblinking eyes. The statues to the east hold giant swords above their heads in a guardian pose, while those to the west point their blades toward the ground, heads bowed in reverence.
”Two different tribes, one conquering the other?” Val asks thoughtfully as she looks at the statues. ”Polli, is there any writing on the bridge?”
Polli imagines a delightful picnic with Dony, and gets rather distracted in her imagination. Before she knows it they are at a bridge. "They still have their gemstones? hmmm...." Polli shifts her vision to detecting magic before she decides to get close enough for her horrible eyes to be able to read the carvings.
The carvings on the bridge seem to be a blessing in the ancient cyclopes language. They beseech the sun and moon to protect travelers on the road.
Polli quickly relays the information to the others and checks at the structural integrity of the bridge while she is at it.
”Should we take the eyes out?” Val asks, ”If they aren’t magical we probably don’t need to, but they must be worth something if someone went to the trouble to pull out all those other ones?”
Polli determines that the bridge is probably one of the most structurally sound structures that she's ever encountered.
"It is okay to cross." Polli points out, though she spends the walk flying around the structure studying its finer structural points.
Tessa thanks the wizard for the protective magic.
Once Polli deems it safe to cross, Tessa does so. Moving across first, she prepares for trouble unseen.
Val shrugs and leaves the large gemstones where they are, for now at least. She follows Tessa over the bridge with her eyes peeled and her bow ready. "Let me know if you'd like anywhere scouted, Cap'n," she offers.
Past the bridge you travel another mile or so along the road as the terrain on either side becomes rougher and climbs higher, transitioning to stoney hills. As the hills climb higher on both sides of you, a wide flagstone path branches off from the main road heading north.
Val scouts it from a distance and finds the path leads past alabaster columns and a pair of tall trees into a small mountain valley. Immense stone buildings stand dark and silent, some clearly weathered by the test of time. The path continues north between the structures to a wide set of stairs leading up to a circular, open-air monument.
She also notices three sentries partially concealed in the trees. Cyclopes armed with heavy crossbows watch the path, but haven't noticed her.
When Val is given the go-ahead to scout the path, she sheathes her swords and transforms into the bustiest little halfling any of her shipmates has ever seen. Vanishing into the brush, she disappears for several minutes before suddenly emerging on the path again.
She reports, "This path leads to some kind of monument, but it's well guarded. There's three cyclopses hiding in the trees with... well, crossbows for them, but they look more like ballista... I suspect that there's more beyond that, but I didn't risk going any farther. We can move in if the Cap'ns want, but it might be smarter to clear some of the easier stuff first?"
Tessa listens to Val's report and nods. "Do we have the capability of taking the sentries out without alerting the others, do you think?"
Turning to Polli she asks, [b]"Any spells that will help with this?"/b]
"I can make a number of us invisible." Harmony says. "We may do best to simply wait for nightfall. They'll sleep at some point most likely and then we could slip into the camp and eliminate them then."
”I don’t know,” Val answers Tessa, ”it depends on how easily spooked they are. In order for you and Mari to get close enough to fight them without getting shot up with bolts first, you’d need invisibilty spells, or some kind of fog or mist, but that might cause them to send up an alarm right away. If we get close enough without raising an alarm, we still have to kill all three of them fast enough that they don’t get the chance to. It’s possible but if they’re skittish at all it won’t be easy...”
"It would also be possible to silence the area around them, which would prevent calling out but not them simply running away, or a visual signal." Harmony points out. "Val, if I make you invisible, could you head up the hill and try to find out what kind of reinforcements they're likely to have?"
Polli thinks "I do not have anyway to silence them, but I could make you both fly, or both protected from arrows. Combine that with invisibility and hasting from Vi, you could in striking distance before they could do anything about it." she adds though "Cyclops are rather tough though. I do not think you could take down three of them before they had time to raise an alarm." she continues with her worries "We could see the fort from the Siren, so it is safe to assume they could see us from the fort. So keeping the alarm from happening might be too late."
Muttering under her breath, Tessa says "Invisible and sleeping, where's the challenge in that." before nodding. "Yes, yes. Invisible and sleeping while we can exterminate them before they can breathe is probably best."
"Regardless, if we have time kill we should continue to explore and scout as Vi suggests. Let's put our time to good use."
”Yes, ma’am,” Val assures Harmony, ”I’ll have to slow down if any of them hear me at all, but with your invisibility magic I think I should be able to get there and back, yes.”
"Best of luck, not that you'll need it." Harmony replies with a smile, making Val disappear.
Val transforms into a goblin right before she turns invisible, then she silently scurries away to scout what’s beyond the first group of guards.
Polli frowns as Val disappears. "I don't like waiting" she whispers as the fear that her friend ends up crushed into jelly settles into her bones. "Does she know the time constraints on your spell?" she asks Harmony, tightening her hands together to keep from yelling out to make sure Val knows them. "I could... no" a battle wizard is good for only one thing really... and waiting is not one of those things.
How many possible enemies remain behind closed doors, she can't tell.
About ten minutes after disappearing, goblin-Val emerges from the brush and returns to her normal form. "There's a little village back there, Cap'ns," she reports, "there's half a dozen more cyclops within shouting range of the guards, that I saw through open doors, plus a half a dozen gargoyles that seem to be their allies. And, that's just what I could see in the open buildings; there were buildings with closed doors that could have hidden more. There's got to be some kind of leader with that many, and I didn't see an obvious one, so there'd be that at least on top of what I did see... could be an advisor, maybe a bodyguard or shieldbearer with him too... If we're going to go after these guards we should, in my opinion, have a plan for how to prevent them alerting their friends, and even when they're gone we still need a plan for attacking the village without getting overrun..."
Tessa nods "We need to whittle these numbers down so we don't get overwhelmed all at once."
"We probably should get inside the building on the right and slowly working our way through them, taking out what's inside one threat at a time as we move our way through camp. Taking care to not make too much noise."
Looking around she asks "What can we do for a distraction elsewhere? A fire, perhaps?"
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”We don’t know what else is lurking where, ma’am,” Val advises. ”If we lit a fire somewhere we may attract cyclops and whatever other threats are closer. Maybe we should try to scout out more of the island to get a feel for where we could create distractions—or set ambushes—and what other threats there are?”
"If we want to deal with them sooner rather than later then going in at night is absolutely required." Harmony says firmly. "Given where we beached our boat though I'm hesitant to simply leave them or else we'll probably find we can never leave again."
"If'n we go in with nothin' ta make 'em look elsewhere it only be takin' one bit o' loud noise to bring 'em all down on us. If'n we 'stead scout fer a bit more first it might'n just save our lives." Donomsail says while she's been keeping Polli close to her, hoping to use her own calm demeanor to keep her favorite Sylph calm as well.
Val nods along with Dony's wise words. "Maybe we should move our boat?" she questions. "They have enough numbers to post guards in shifts, so I'm not sure how much advantage we get by coming at night... can cyclops see in the dark? Either way, if they have guards posted they either already know we're here, which means they'll be on guard for us at least until they think we left, or they're guarding against something else, and we should probably know what that is before we get caught in between them."
The slayer gazes westward, curious if she can make out any of the stone tower they spotted earlier from here. Then she takes a deep breath and adds, "but I'm just reporting and advising, ma'ams. It's up to the cap'ns to give the orders."
"Return to the boat and sail south then I think." Harmony suggests. "Either the fort or the stone tower may prove a better place to work from. We don't have long though, perhaps three weeks to pacify this place if you all wish to take your seats, so there isn't much time left. A night-time strike or two may be required..."
Apparently the books Polli has been reading to learn their language had plenty more on cyclops manners, habits, breeding, and eyesight. "Low light only. Darkness would be the preference, except..." she frowns at the pure-blooded humans in their group "We have that shortcoming as well."
"The average cyclops is no match for our offensive capabilities. An even playing field coupled with surprise on our side and a choice of the battlefield, we could manage almost twice our number... but more, plus gargoyles... I don't know." she ponders the average size of the cyclopes posterior and the length and number of their boats to try and guess how many they might be dealing with, assuming a single trip.
"If it wasn't for the gargoyles, I'd suggest an artillery team of fireballs and arrows coupled with flight and protection from their projectiles... but with the gargoyles... I'm uncertain." she looks irritated at herself for not being sure.
"They'd be a problem." Harmony agrees. "Luring the cyclopes away may be a viable strategy, but if that's the case I'd want to know we had plenty of safe places to go. I have magic which could help with the darkness issue but I'd be limited if we need invisibility as well. Let's keep it as an option and move on for now."
Tessa frowns at the call to retreat and move on. Everything inside of her is telling her that they can take this place, now, but she doesn't work against her co-captain. A soured "Aye" is what she issues verbally and moves on ahead.
”Ma’am,” Val answers Harmony with a tug on her cap. She transforms back into the strange, four-armed version of herself, draws her shortswords, and follows Tessa as they resume exploring the road to the west.
Deciding to come back to these ruins after exploring more of the island, you continue westward along the granite road. You encounter nothing else threatening or noteworthy in the couple of miles between the ruins and the western watchtower.
A tall stone tower topped with battlements rises along the cliffs here. Two eyeless cyclops statues rise above these defenses, gazing sightlessly over the western sea. Above them, the spire continues upward, tapering into a giant crystal shard of pink quartz. At ground level, immense double doors, decorated in ancient glyphs, form the tower’s only entrance. This stone watchtower is 60 feet tall, with battlements encircling a raised platform about 40 feet up. It provides a commanding view of the seaside cliffs.
*
As you approach within a hundred yards of the tower, Harmony and Valeria easily spot the three cyclopes sentries before they spot you. They're up on the battlements and watching in your direction with large crossbows. They haven't seen you ... yet.