"..." Melody opens her mouth to ask Why would someone do this, but the smell hits her and she flees to the open air, scurrying past the slow walking Morgana to do so.
Luckily, the fresh air is easy to be had as you head for the next building.
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.
Simple wooden furniture is in disarray throughout this 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.
This building does not appear to house any unexpected residents unlike the last two you entered. Searching the place, you discover precisely what you would expect in an average home; boots, spare cloaks hung on pegs, cookware, and plates and mugs along with some basic sundries.
The small chest contains five bags, each of which holds 5 pounds of powdered silver (worth 25 gp each), four blocks of incense (worth 25 gp each), and a pouch with 100 gp worth of diamond dust.
In the main room, Melody pauses at the windowsill. Picking up a gold ring, she looks at it with a touch of sorrow. "It's a wedding ring, isn't it? No one would just leave something like this."
In the bedroom, the halflig finds a small metal chest under the bed, easier for her to stoop so low to look. It is locked but she tries...
... and fails.
If nothing explodes, she tries again and again until...
"Powders and incense, but no answers." Melody frowns at the contents.
"Those patches look like barrels to me." Morgana says, pointing to the circles on the floor. "Well, about the size of barrels stored on their ends."
As Melody sets to work on the lockbox Morgana wanders outside trying to trace the path of the barrels in question.
Shaumatiel follows behind Morgana, eyes alert for danger.
Vasia steps outside to follow Morgana.
Jenica is reluctant to leave Melody alone with the chest, but with her nepoata's forceful urging she follows along.
Luckily, Morgana knew what she was looking for and notices very wide trail about 3 1/2 feet wide, heavy and flat which must be the barrels, but in the centre of this trail is a set of starfish-shaped footprints.
The tracks leads away from the house due South along the road between the houses.
"We'll wait for Melody and then follow these." Morgana decides. "It's the first sign of actual life!"
Once the halfling is done with the box she leads the way, moving cautiously in full expectation of some sort of nasty attack.
Melody finally trips the lock,looking with a relieve smile only to see no one there!!! She hurries outside, worried that the empty town had swallowed them.
Relief washed over her when she sees them all. She gets a tad grumpy that no one told her though.
"What did you find?" Morgana asks gently, trying to head off the halfling's bad mood. "That looked like a tricky lock, you did well!"
"I wanted to wait for you," Jenica whispers to the halfling.
Melody brightens at the whisper from Jenica and the praise from Morgana "Silver and diamond powders and incense. Nothing to tell us what happened." the brightening dims at her own reminding about the morbid mystery they are in.
"Well you did well to find it regardless." Morgana replies, squeezing Melody's shoulder gently. "We'll ask around once we get back to the ship, maybe someone there will know whose ring it was."
With the girls reunited she takes the lead and heads south following the tracks.
The tracks lead due south, following a dirt road between a row of houses. Eventually you come to a four way intersection in the path but Morgana's keen eyes easily locate the signs that lead you further south and then eventually east, to a somewhat lonely house on the edge of town which stands atop a small hill.
A stone well has been built, not far from the house's front door and a large stone near the entrance is painted with the words 'Levin's Farm'. Just south of the cottage is a tilled vegetable patch which has begun to grow rather wild.
Perception DC15, separate check
Morgana barely glances at the garden, preferring instead to head into the house where the tracks have led them.
"Be careful." She says quietly. "There's a floorboard here to step over. Let's check inside and see who, or what, is still here!"
She suits actions to words, making sure to avoid the floorboard.
Melody looks over at Morgana, clearly confused. The woman is moving slowly and carefully, like she is trying to be quiet, but is Not.
Shaumatiel follows along silently, blade in hand.
Vasia follows close behind Morgana her attempts to mirror the woman's quiet movements more mimicry than effective.
"There's something underneath the floorboard," she whispers.
The phantom rolls her gray eyes at the two women's attempt at quiet movement. "Why don't you two just bang a drum and blow a horn? You wouldn't be making any more noise." She glances down at Melody with a smirk.
This house is in disarray, with chairs and tables flipped over, blankets torn to shreds, and produce such as corn and melons gnawed upon and then discarded to rot on the floor.
The house has two bedrooms. The smaller of which seems untouched. However two barrels have been rolled into the larger bedroom; one stands on end by a window. That barrel is empty, but the other remains sealed. Both barrels are marked as containing ale.
As you examine the rooms, a muffled thump comes from outside the window in the large bedroom.
Morgana throws out a hand and goes to investigate. Not finding anything in the bedroom itself she heads for the window and cautiously leans out...
As Morgana leans out of the window a tentacle surges up and grabs at her throat! Luckily for the shifter her cat-like reflexes are just fast enough to avoid the blow.
The choker tries again, two tentacles reaching this time! One catches Morgana around the neck and begins to squeeze!
Jenica narrows her eyes and then ... pushes ... through the wall, a thin silvery sheen remaining on the surface. Appearing on the other side, she slams one of her sabres into the strange creature.
Vasia concentrates and a nearby outside rock flies through the air towards the choker.
"Tentacles! Like one of your books- not the time" Melody stumbles in inspiration.
As her throat is grabbed and air is suddenly in short supply Morgana feels the beast inside her surge into life as her perception goes black.
Jenica, outside, sees Morgana entire head shift suddenly. Eye grow large and luminous, hair sprouts across her face in vivid orange and black stripes and her jaw is suddenly filled with huge teeth which bite down at the offending tentacles!
Shaumatiel quickly calls forth a brief shower of acid rain over the choker!
The hunched over wretch is first pelted by rocks and then wripped into small pieces by a tigress before Shaumatiel's acid rain even begins falling. It falls to the ground, blood pouring everywhere, the stench of alcohol still overpowering everything.
Whilst scanning the house, Vasia notices a magical aura emanating from below the floorboard by the front corridor. Prising it up, is a rather ornate blade with a grip wrapped in green leather and gold wire that glows with a pale emerald light.
Morgana pulls herself back through the window and shakes, looking perfectly normal once again.
"Gah!" She reaches for her throat and seems surprised to not find anything there. "Umm... Vasia? What just happened? I seem to have blacked out?" She looks back through the window cautiously and flinches. "Err... thank you Jenica? You seem to have gone a bit overboard though."
Shaumatiel gently lays hands on Morgana's bloodied neck. "Falayna, heal your servant's battle scars," the elf prays, her hands glowing with healing energy.
"There was a vile aberration that tried to throttle you, but it is dead now," she tells Morgana. "Danger lurks around every corner here. We must remain vigilant and--"
She gasps in delight when Vasia emerges with the glowing blade. "Ooh! It's so shiny!" she squeals. "Can I have it? Can I?"
Melody doesn't have the words to explain what did happen instead of a black out, so she just reaches up and squeezes Morgana's hand, giving her a reassuring smile.
Looking at the sword that is three times her height she nods if Shaumatiel looks at her at all for approval.
"I ... I think it's Azlanti in manufacturer," Vasia says as she hands the weapon over to Shaumatiel.
"It was almost like one of the creatures from that book of poems crawled out and tried to ... well ... let's just be glad that all it grabbed was your neck," she says to Morgana. Pulling the woman into a hug, she whispers, "And you were showing parts of the beast. But it saved your life."
Jenica simply shrugs and turns away to watch for more handsey threats.
"It was almost like one of the creatures from that book of poems crawled out and tried to ... well ... let's just be glad that all it grabbed was your neck," she says to Morgana. Pulling the woman into a hug, she whispers, "And you were showing parts of the beast. But it saved your life."
Morgana stiffens in Vasia's arms, and the shorter woman can practically feel the tension inside the former paladin. Morgana doesn't say anything but she gently extracts herself from Vasia and it is clear that that she is terrified, and trying to hide it.
"Right..." She says slowly. Then the silence stretches on long enough to become very uncomfortable.
Vasia senses the woman's apprehension and pulls her back into her arms. "Listen to me. You didn't hurt anyone other than the creature that was trying to kill you," she says, holding Morgana's gaze. "Whatever that part of you is ... it's a part of you," she continues. "And there's nothing about you that frightens me."
Shaumatiel takes the glowing sword and slices it through the air, marveling at its perfect balance. "Falayna, thank you for allowing me to discover this mighty weapon," the elf prays, raising the rings on her fingers to the sky in praise of her deity.
She turns to the others. "Shall we continue our explorations?"
Vasia senses the woman's apprehension and pulls her back into her arms. "Listen to me. You didn't hurt anyone other than the creature that was trying to kill you," she says, holding Morgana's gaze. "Whatever that part of you is ... it's a part of you," she continues. "And there's nothing about you that frightens me."
Morgana melts back into Vasia's embrace and holds her tightly, probably tighter than is entirely comfortable. "Thank you." She whispers, a wealth of meaning in those two words. She picks Vasia off the floor for a brief moment and puts her down again before turning to Shaumatiel.
"You're right, we should move on. Although I'm wondering where that thing could have come from. Do we know what it actually is?" She still apparently can't bring herself to look at the body and what she did to it.
Vasia gives a small squeak and giggle when her feet lift from the floor.
"I have no idea what that was," she says, her face slightly flushed. "But we should keep exploring."
A husky voice whispers into Morgana's ear.
Morgana looks over her shoulder at Jenica and her lip quirks upwards.
Melody looks at lifting, giggles, husky whispers and shuffles her feet a bit remembering the long loney voyage. "Um... people! We should find the people... don't you.. think?"
Casting around outside the farmhouse you eventually come across some more of the creature's odd triangular footprints. They seem to come from the well which has been dug a little way from the house.
Even with the sun high overhead it is difficult to see into the well. Apart from making out that there is definitely water at the bottom it is difficult to tell how much further it may go, or how the creature got into the shaft in the first place. The sides of the well are very rough however, which suggests it could probably climb the shaft. The rope and sturdy pulley system provides a simple way to go down and explore if you wish...
"I can go down..." Morgana offers, "Unless you don't mind going Jenica?"
"I'm good at climbing" the halfling admits, which is true, rooftops always made the world seem clearer. "But why do we want to... oh to see there are any more of them? I... still could??" she gulps but starts to climb the well walls, ready to descend.
"No need to go by yourself, My Lovely," Jenica says with affection. Her weapons vanish and she joins the halfling as she descends.
"thank you" she smiles up at the ghost, then starts climbing down slowly.
Descending together the halfling and the phantom find a crack in the well wall just above the waterline. Jenica can see that a passage leads off from it, heading under the hills near the colony. The gap is large enough for everyone, although Shaumatiel and Morgana might find it something of a squeeze.
The three women waiting at the top of the well get the report shouted up to them. Now you all have a decision to make, head into the well and potentially who knows how many creatures beneath the earth, or continue searching the abandoned settlement...
”I think we ought to finish looking for any survivors here before we go spelunking,” Shaumatiel opines.
"There isn't anyone in the village." Morgana counters. "That... thing, and the goblins wouldn't be around if there were still any survivors. I say we check these caves in case anyone was taken there."
She doesn't seem overly keen on the idea, but Vasia recognises the set face Morgana gets when she feels as though she has to do something.
"Um... does that mean we go in... or come up?" the dangling halfling calls up from the dark wet hole.