Vexas starts panting and breathing heavily, feeling like he's hanging on by a thread. He looks back and forth at all of his companions, seeing each of them as islands he needs to dart between and take cover behind. He sprints over to Kowal and loads his crossbow.
He peers out from behind the elf, scanning for any more arrows headed his way.
Fenna sidesteps to reach around the other side of the big rock in front of her. She lines up her pike and jabs at the last goblin standing.
"These little runts are completely crazy!"
Malakar will continue his routine of basic attacking unless someone gets badly hurt than he will Cast a CLW instead.
round 4
Edit:Crit confirm
round 5 moving if needed.
Fenna misses with her pike, but Malakar moves up and slices the Goblin across the gut with his scimitar. Amazingly, the Goblin still lives and does not retreat. It continues to growl and grunt and bare its teeth.
Kowal quickly reloads and calls out “in a different situation it would be interesting to study this blood rage more” As he looses the bolt he just reloaded
Kowal's bolt flies true and pierces clean through its throat. The creature's growls become a gurgle; then stop altogether as it falls backward on the ground.
Vexas rubs his arm where the arrows grazed him.
Thanks Kowal. Appreciate the aid.
He looks around at the bodies on the ground.
I'm going to guess these runts didn't build that precise clockwork thing to lead us to them...
"It could be Azlanti in origin and the goblins discovered it," says Brannart. "But more likely, whoever is behind the colonists' disappearance is the one using the clockwork, and I don't think that is the goblins."
Brannart starts moving towards the dais. Is the clockwork still there?
Korwal is at half by the looks if he would like I can give him a cure.
As for the ruins while I am intrigued by history the presence of this technology unnerves me and I will observe carefully while looking to replenish rations with local fare.
Edit: I will also try to focus on my empathic link with Razor to see that he is ok and assuming I do connect I will know we are within a mile of the coast and presumably the rendezvous. Nevermind that is familiars.
Thank you, Malakar, their resilience is interesting, We should go see if the flying machine reacts to us approaching, we may still be able to find the information it has Kowal says as he begins moving slowly over to the machine seeing if other follow.
Vexas carefully approaches the device that landed upon the stone dais, eyeing it as he would a complex lock or trap. He looks for any obvious entry points, or openings that he might access with his tools...
As Kowal follows Vexas closely he touches his temples with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand as he moves his left across his face and chants "Apokalýpste aftó pou ítan krymméno" casting detect magic
As soon as it's safe to do so, Fenna also turns her attention back to the little machine. Since Vexas and Kowal are approaching it straight on, she circles wide around to come at it from the opposite direction.
The sun is just a speck as it continues to disappear over the horizon. The hilltop slowly turns to the purple glow of dusk. Below you to the east, the forest is already darkening. With the Goblin threat seemingly over, adrenalin leaves your veins. You feel the day’s activities as your internal clock screams for rest. You wipe your blades clean and move toward the dais and your recent quarry. Before doing so, Sho quickly inspects the Goblins’ feet and determines that the tracks found earlier are from a larger creature. Malakar considers searching for food but determines the hilltop is void of any sustenance and looks to the valley below but gets distracted when his companions approach the dais.
As you approach, the mechanical creature starts to scamper backward toward the far end of the dais. When you get ten feet from the dais, the circular raised structure starts to glow with an upward shining blue and white swirling light. Mingled in the light are golden sparkles. Slowly forming from the swirling light is an image of a humanoid figure dressed in black robes and wearing a light-bluish metal helm that obscures all facial features except for the mouth, which is partially covered by links of chain. The front of the helmet is decorated by three upward-pointing tines, like a trident, the middle tine half again the size of the outer tines. Each of the tines are accentuated with a golden border with three golden spokes meeting in the center of each tine forming a raised golden pool-like ornamentation.
Through the chain links the figure begins to speak. The words are clearly audible and the offered hand gestures seem to dictate calmness and reassurance.
Moments after the monologue, the image disappears, and you notice propellers spinning on the Clockwork Spy. It appears ready to take flight, but Fenna is close enough to reach out and attempt to grab it.
Hearing the strange language, Vexas looks around at the faces in his group, to find any hints of recognizing it. He hopes that's obvious enough of an inquiry to get an answer, but also hoping that anybody understands it at all!
Kowal will repeat the phrase in common as he begins jotting it down in a notebook "Loyal citizens of the Empire – fear not. The blot in the heavens is but a ruse by veiled foes to keep us distracted in this time of mounting chaos. Tend to your regular duties, and trust in the Ioun Imperative and your Emperor to keep you safe. Do not fail us, and we shall not fail you." he says then ponders for a moment before wondering aloud "I wonder if this was a reassurance to the general public of Azlant during their end days, Oh and this radiated Illusion magic as could probably be ascertained from the effect."
Hmm... I think you're right. I wonder, did people gather at additional dais to receive this message. This doesn't seem like an effective means for wide-area distribution. It would be interesting to find more of these as an indication of where neighborhoods or small communities were centralized.
Brannart is astonished at the ancient Azlanti magic.
At Vexas's apparent dismissal of the wondrous enchantment, so quickly resorting to critiquing the magic's 'effectiveness', Brannart shakes his head. Is he not impressed at all? What has the halfling seen in his days?
"I did not expect to find relics of Azlant still functioning! This is amazing! What more do you all think we will find?
Clearly this was a response to the impending Earthfall, and Azlant's rulers were either unaware of the danger or deliberately lying to their people. For all their wondrous accomplishments in magic and clockwork, they had their flaws. Arrogance, it seems."
Fenna watches the image in amazement as well, but she knows enough about the workings of magic to understand it to be an illusion set to when a condition is met, like approaching the dias. Its longevity is due to further magic to make it permanent.
It's no small achievement, certainly far beyond anything she could accomplish. But, the message is something to ponder later, not relevant to the moment at hand.
She switches her attention back to the little machine. As soon as the prop appears again she pounces on it.
As the clockwork machine takes flight, Fenna dives after it and grabs a hold of one of its legs. Her grasp is precarious, and the Bard feels her grip slipping as it slowly lifts in the air.
Brannart realizes what is going on with the flying construct. He snaps out of his fascination with the illusion and runs over to grab the machine!
Brannart comes to Fenna's aid and easily grasps two of the legs in a tight hold. Sho grabs another for good measure. With the Clockwork Spy contained, Vexas takes a look at it and believes he can find a way in without destroying the creature.
Vexas frowns as his lack of, ahem, tallness and reach. He draws his rapier and looks for a point on the machine to snag it.
Brannart brings the flying machine, held tightly in his grip, down to the ground.
"I've got it, Vexas. Can you open it up and... do something to its clockwork? Make it temporarily stop?"
Once they've wrestled it down, Vexas replaces his rapier with his fine thieve's picks.
Brannart will work to Pin the construct so Fenna or Sho can tie it up, and then Vexas can work on it at his leisure.
Once the machine is locked in place on the ground, Vexas is able to get to work. Initially, he has some difficulty. Tiredness plagues him and darkness continues to envelope the hilltop. He shakes off sleep and his companions offer light. Vexas studies the device. It reminds him of a puzzle more intricate than the little scavenger hunt he went on during the voyage over with his good friend Kalcora. Knowing he has time, the rogue takes a breath and concentrates. Turn this piece, move that latch, rotate this gear . . . POP. A slender piece of metal, jagged near the end, springs out. A key! Vexas realizes it’s a key. He toys with it for a moment and confirms that it telescopes out and eventually bends back in on itself to fit into a tiny slot now uncovered by his dismantling. Vexas believes that the key was designed this way to allow the spy to open itself.
Placing the key into the slot opens the mechanism near the front giving him access to the backside of the gemstone that acts like its eye. Pushing a lever near the eye sends out a projection. The projection glows in red and shows a large open room. Doors open and humanoid figures walk in. Shortly afterward there are muddled voices then two of the humanoids leave the same way they came in.
Then the projection fades and you realize it was some type of recording of all of you entering the government-like building moments before finding the spy.
Spending a bit more time on the device, Vexas, learns that by maneuvering the key around to the different gears inside, he could possibly wind and unwind the machine and possibly program it to perform simple tasks.
Dusk turns to night. You find yourself on a moonlit hilltop surrounded by ruins of ancient Azlanti civilization. The excitement of the day wears on you. You are tired.
Brannart watches as Vexas works.
"It's getting late. I would rather we were back in a building, but I can sleep out under the stars. We should look to meet the ship in the morning, I think."
"I can take any shift needed," says the warrior. "My eyes are quite good in moonlight or starlight, ever since... ever since what happened in the Crusades."
”I’m happy inside or out.” Kowal says looking like he’d be about ready to just lay right here without any prep.
Ah, now this is impressive. And that was the recording of us in the government building. I think we could keep working with this little guy and figure out how to make it work for us...
He squints at it, concentrating with one of his lock picks tucked behind his ear. At Brannart's prompting he looks up and realizes what time it is.
Right. Time to make camp.
Malakar will help make camp.
"I will take the darkest watch. I can see in the dark and the cold doesn't bother me much."
Fenna is delighted to have the little machine in hand. Its ability to maintain itself and the images it holds of them astound her. So much so she doesn't spend time considering the creepiness of the spying it was doing. Instead she badgers Vexas as he tries to work with it, asking multiple times what else it can do.
She's less excited when it becomes apparent everyone else is content to spend the night in place. Fenna raises several points on the subject.
"So... I'd like to point out some things we ought to think about before settling in. We're not just somewhere outside. We're right on the spot where we were led by a machine that might have been given orders to come here for pick up by its owner."
"Also those goblins were right here on the spot like they were waiting to ambush us. It might be a coincidence but what if it's not? Somebody's probably going to notice they didn't come back. What if more goblins come looking for them?"
"It also has the old illusion podium thing. There's an awful lot of reasons for this spot to attract attention. Maybe we should just go back to the colony, it wouldn't be that bad to make the trip. Or at least we should move to a place that isn't as much of a bullseye?"
Vexas considers Fenna's intuition.
That's a good point. The colony is a long way back though. Perhaps we could just pick a less conspicuous patch in the forest, reasonably off the path?
The lazy halfling likes more immediate solutions.
Considering it's getting dark now and we also got super fatigued getting here immediate solutions sound good.
Sho moves off into the forest using her wilderness skills to study soil distribution, pathways of rain water run-off and rock formation clusters. She returns shortly after, the moon still low on the horizon.
The Ranger leads you all to an ideal location not too from the hilltop. It is a natural open area encircled by granite. Brannart’s trained, military eyes determine that it is an excellent choice due to its defensive position.
Taking shifts and getting rest, the night proves uneventful thanks to Sho’s sanctuary. You wake up refreshed to the sounds of morning. Abundant avian calls greet the day. Low-lying fog shrouds the forest floor like a carpet. The sun, barely a presence in the sky, shines almost horizontally through the canopy in beams that glisten off perspiring moss, covering fallen trees and granite rocks.
Ancorato welcomes you to your first island morning. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO?
Vexas sits up in his bedroll and blinks, then using his little fists to rub his eyes clean.
Well, it seems we're all still here. It seems we can continue through the wilderness relatively safely if we pick our spots. He offers to anybody who happens to be awake before him.
He starts packing up his setting again, further planning out loud.
So, do we continue past the dais in search of where our missing villagers might be.
Brannart rises and stretches.
"I don't know the best thing to do, Vexas. Should we head to the secondary colony site - the emergency extraction point?
We were told to go there once we had gathered sufficient information to determine a safe place for the Peregrine to disembark.
I feel like maybe we should fill in Ramona on what we have found, but maybe we don't know enough yet.
Then again, maybe the colonists are at that site."
"I think it is best we go to the emergency site. We can certainly look for more clues about the missing colonists along the way. However, we have not come up with anything as of yet so it may be best to report in and organize a larger search with more eyes and ears to aide."
Malakar will than cast know direction to gain bearing and point out the direction the off-site should be.
Malakar scans the horizon; then closes his eyes and prays to Gozreh to show him the way. Moments later, the Druid opens his eyes with the divine guidance he is searching for.
Vexas considers both sides at length and offers, Hmm, yes we could go straight to them and avoid that. We could then still return to the village to complete investigation, or even see if our friends on the ship have some additional manpower to help us with that. They're going to have to setup there anyway.
Nodding in agreement with Vexas Kowal responds "Yes, I think it makes sense to return later. We wouldn't want to be held up and have them send out a search party for their search party."
"Yes, I think we should first meet up with the ship, fill them in, get a bit of help, and plan to check in again at a later time.
We could also ask one or both of the priests from the ship to come help us with our ghost problem."