"I don't know much about spirits, Vexas. I don't know how to fight it or how to placate it or if I will go mad from seeing it."
Nevertheless, Brannart moves back to the doorway, looks inside, and listens.
Vexas asks his question, but for several seconds there is a silence. Then a voice answers. A deep whispering voice, "Why? Rayland Arkley, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?" Then there is silence.
Vexas scratches his chin absent-mindedly and focuses on the name.
Rayland Arkley... isn't that a name Ramona mentioned on our voyage on the Peregrine? Yes! He was the among the first colonists and is the current colony leader. Brannart, I think you might know him as a well-respected military figure, retired from Andoran military and honored Eagle Knight?
He looks at the warrior while still considering the implications. He continues speaking softly to the rest of the group.
So, this spirit feels wronged by Rayland. It could be he abused his power or simply that he had to make tough choices that didn't leave all affected happy.
Cutting off his own speculation he raises his voice and speaks out to the spirit again.
Vexas listens for several moments, finally he gets a one word response, "MURDERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
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Vexas turns to Malakar and asks Are spirits capable of telling lies? If not, we're going to be having an awkward meeting with Rayland once we find and rejoin with the colonists...
"Hmm... if it were malevolent maybe but spirits like this are usually tortured by their pass. At least that is what I have heard."
Brannart bristles a bit at the spirit's accusation.
"Yes, Rayland is a respected Eagle Knight. My brother Hamish knows him better than I do, but considers him to be an honorable man. I think murder is most unlikely. There is more to this story."
Some madness infesting the Colony? Or was this spirit a criminal that had to be executed?
"Should we look for a body?"
Vexas frowns at this and turn his head, scanning the landscape of the former settlement.
We can... but I suspect it wouldn't be hidden in an obvious place, such as freshly dug nearby these buildings. In the jungle, down a ravine, fed to wild animals. That's a search that has potential to quickly expand and consume our time. I'm not against trying for a time but if it isn't fruitful I think we'll just have to keep an eye out on our journey.
"That trail of blood you saw in the temple, Vexas. You were starting to follow it when the spirit first appeared. Do you think we can chance following it again, or will the spirit be angry?"
Brannart is out of his depth here. The halfling either knows something about this sort of problem, or is good at faking confidence.
The halfling shrugs and turns back towards the building entrance, scanning to recover the blood trail.
Well, I'm pretty sure the body isn't in there with the spirit, but yes I suppose we should try to see if the trail leads us someplace specific away from the building.
He first follows it to its end inside of the chapel to confirm his notion.
Vexas then attempts to see where the trail continues outside of the building.
As Vexas reenters the chapel, nothing stirs. Following the trail of blood, Vexas first stops at the pile of ashes he was considering. Both piles appear to be books that have been burned. The one pile still bears the leather cover with the title Parables of Erastil. The other pile of ash barely has fragments of unburnt pages.
After this, the trail of blood leads him to the altar, which is covered in a white sheet. The blood stops just before the altar, but the stench of death is prevalent.
Vexas carefully pulls off the white sheet to see what is revealed.
"This is On Government, one of the fundamental texts of Andoran. Who would have burned this book?"
Brannart continues to suspect the involvement of Cheliax (or, less likely, Razmir).
Removing the dusty white cloth reveals a box-like cabinet with carvings of farms, forests, and bows on the sides and front. Vexas’s trained eyes pick out a secret panel on the back that appears can be slid open.
As he slides a panel on the back of the cabinet open, Vexas bolts upright and affixes one forearm over his nose and mouth. The rest can barely hear his muffled voice.
Uh oh, I think I was wrong. There is something here. It's bad...
With his breathing protected he finishes sliding it open looking for a body and watching carefully to see if it falls out of the opening.
What is in there Vexas? Malakar says while moving into the chapel now curious as to what happened here.
Fenna takes the copy of On Government to give it a look for herself.
"It's starting to seem there might have been some trouble among the colonists themselves. But it there was a split, it still doesn't make sense for all the colonists to be gone. Even if things got really ugly I'd think only one of the sides would have left..."
Vexas slides the panel back. A body, sickly-gray skin pulled back around its skull, lies there hunched over in the box partially covered in the black sludge of decay. The smell lashes out and overtakes Vexas, but his covering helped and the Halfling kept the worst at bay.
At the same moment, the whispering voice returns, ”Murdererrrrrrrrrrrrrr”. And the chalice starts to shake again.
Vexas' body seizes as he holds back a violent gag. **Hurk**
Keep it together, keep it together...
Yup, found it. It's dead, but still "kicking." Arm yourselves.
Kowal moves out of the building and stands at the entryway, crossbow in hand.
Malakar will attempt to grab the chalice and place it in the alter.
The chalice stops rattling when Malakar picks it up. It appears to be a normal short-necked metallic chalice with images of a stag and bow and arrows displayed around a deep bowl. As the Druid nears the altar, the smell of decay becomes overpowering. The Undine makes it to the altar and places the chalice on top just as his stomach starts to twist. He has to quickly turn away as he starts to retch and heave.
For a moment, except for Malakar's retching, the church is still. Then the whispered voice returns, "Murdererrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" Then the whisper turns into a scream as the chalice shakes, then bursts off the altar and careens towards Malakar. The goblet misses the Undine and hits the opposing wall behind him with a loud thunk before it clangs on the floor.
The AP does not provide a look inside the chapel. I could create something, but since this 'opponent' is currently 'just a voice' let's use Theater of the Mind for this encounter. If truly needed, I'll put a map together.
Vexas draws his blade and looks all around him for the source of the voice.
Brannart holds his ground.
"Does anybody have a plan?"
Fenna backs toward the door, moving as quickly as she can while walking backwards and watching for flying objects.
"I have an excellent plan. Let's leave right now. There's a Erastilian priest on the ship. We'll come back once he's able to come with us."
"Vexas, I think Fenna is right! Get out, I'll cover you!"
Brannart will use Total Defense (for AC 24) and will only leave once everyone else is out.
The companions agree on a plan and quickly exit the chapel. From the outside; looking in, the building remains quiet. Nothing stirs.
"I was thinking we might take the body and bury it with proper rites, but maybe we need to put the spirit to rest first. I'd be happier getting the opinion of a priest on the topic."
Leaving the Spirit for now, the companions make their way to the next structure. This long, rectangular building appears to be a home, though larger than many beyond the palisade to the south. It has three windows, all covered with wooden shutters and a single door facing northwest, which is unbarred and slightly ajar.
As they get close to the building, Fenna notices something odd on the ground.
"Hey, look at these funny tracks. It was two different things that made them, right?"
Vexas squats down and squints at the tracks. This village has seen more than a little bit of interesting activity.
I couldn't say Fenna, but I really hope they're not from the same creature or I can't imagine what it would be.
"The broad flattened track is probably from something like a board or a chest maybe. These strange starfish-shaped footprints come afterwards, so perhaps this creature was pushing an object, or else followed along later."
"If the object was taken from this house, then we might not find answers inside, but we may as well look."
Brannart will search the house.
Upon inspection of the tracks and thoughts from Brannart, the companions determine that something flat and heavy was rolled away from the house and the footprints belong to whatever was pushing it.
When entering the home, the companions notice simple wooden furniture in disarray throughout the residence. Tables and chairs are knocked over and pushed aside, though none appear willfully broken. Articles of clothing and household items are scattered across the floor as if they were examined briefly and discarded. A large pallet bed is visible in a separate room through an open interior door. A third room with no windows is next to the bedroom but is completely empty. A casual search of the interior reveals common domestic items such as boots, cloaks hung on pegs, cookware, plates and mugs.
With a thorough search, Brannart finds a gold wedding band sitting on a windowsill. There is an engraved inscription on the ring that reads My Dearest Livvy. In the bedroom he finds a locked small metal chest shoved far under the bed and against the wall. His search of the empty room reveals three bare circles on the floor void of dust accumulation.
Vexas looks at the articles strewn about the home.
Somebody tore through here in a hurry. Either looking for something or frantically deciding what to take...
The halfling points at the three "clean" circles. Those looks about the right size for the barrels missing from the Provisions Building.
He immediately diverts himself to the small, locked chest that Brannart has found under the bed and casually retrieves his lock-picks, holding them up for the fighter to see.
These are the good ones! he quips, smiling.
He wiggles his fingers out in front of them, as if warming them up for the dextrous exercising they're about to undertake.
However, the confidence begins to fade a little as the halfling can be seen sweating and struggling through the lock.
Almost... right there...
One of the picks pops out and he exclaims Dammit!
At first he goes back in boorishly, frustrated at his near-success but only makes it worse. He then pauses, takes a deep breath and goes back in finding where he'd left off the first time.
Just over a full minute of the halfling fiddling with the lock, he finally gets it open. Laughing sheepishly and self-consciously at his visible struggle, he hands the box to Brannart to divert attention.
Reeeeal smooth. Sigh.
Kowal will pull out a notebook and scrawl down the name
Livvy and location of the house
Kowal will then cast detect magic looking over the contents of the chest as well as the ring assuming Vexas and Brannart are alright with that respectively
Assuming the ring is not magical kowal will ask
Brannart would you mind if I held onto that ring?
Kowal casts Detect Magic and determines its presence in the rolled pieces of vellum. While examining the other items, Kowal concludes that the other items are most likely valuable spell components.
Brannart looks askance at Kowal. "You can, I suppose..." - the warrior sounds quite uncertain - "but if we find this Livvy or their spouse, I think we should return the ring to them. A symbol of love between two people..."
There is some sadness in his voice as he looks over the wedding band and hands it to Kowal. Why does he want it?
"These tracks appear to be about a week old. I think it worth following them, but time is probably not of the essence there. I would say we should move on to the next building."
The companions head toward the next building. Coincidentally, the tracks follow this same path until they diverge through the south palisade gate. The south side of the palisade is the only finished side and the gate can be barred from within. It is currently open and a large wooden bar leans against the fence. Looking beyond the gate, the tracks continue on an unpaved road where homes have been built or are in various stages of construction.
Moving past the gate, for now, and approaching the next building, the name ’Arkley’ is carved into a wooden sign nailed next to the doorframe of this log cabin. 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. The door is closed but does not appear to be barred or locked.
Fenna's no tracker so she's reluctant to speak up, but as they're leaving the building she does timidly say something.
"If those barrels were taken a week or so ago that's well after the colony was abandoned. Those sure aren't goblin tracks, so we have a scavenger of another sort around in the area..."
Vexas nods at Fenna's intuition. Yes, and not too small a scavenger either.
As they exit the gate and spy the row of buildings, the halfling suggests [b]Perhaps we want to split up and peak into as many buildings as possible? One could easily signal if trouble is found.
Kowal continues with Brannart for a moment
Of course Brannart I’d have no intention of keeping it if we found the rightful owner. Thank you.
Then shifting the the larger group and the question posed by Vexas
even so opening multiple doors at once still seems like more risk than its worth
"Kowal, Fenna, Malakar, can any of you tell what those scrolls are? They could be useful."
"No Vexas, I think we should stick together in case of trouble. We have already found danger in some of these buildings.
This must be the home of Rayland Arkley, the colony leader. Accused of murder by the spirit, though I expect there is more to that story. We may find answers inside."
Brannart looks in one of the windows, then opens the door if he doesn't see any danger inside.