"Oh... that is... neat" Melody rises to her tip toes to see it properly as it is cupped in the larger woman's hands.
"Can anyone make it stop or do I need to take it apart?" Morgana asks. Once it becomes clear that no-one can, she begins to neatly detach the legs with a single clawed hand, trying not to do too much damage to the joints.
"Wait!" Melody startles when she sees the delicate legs are about to be snapped "I think... I can... there is something inside it, a key, and I think if we can get it out, we can make him ours?" her tone turns to a question, looking up at all the big people around her to see if she should.
Crosslegged on the floor with her little picks, sewing needles, and a quick tie to keep her hair out of her face, she tries...
Jenica gives Melody an encouraging nod and a smile.
With Morgana holding the creature still Melody is able, after some time and work, to extract the key. She snaps a couple of things in the process but the construct still seems to function... Unwinding it reveals its last orders which seem to be its current orders: to maintain position, keep itself wound, await the arrival of humanoids other than monkey goblins, record any conversation, and return to a predetermined location for further instructions. The clockwork’s recording gem is blank, except for a short snippet of conversation it seems to have caught before Morgana jumps on it.
With nothing else to find in the government house you press on to the long buildings which take up most of the north eastern wall. These two long, rectangular buildings are constructed entirely from planks on a wooden frame, with a pitched thatched roof. Each building has two doorframes on the side of the buildings opposite the palisade, but lacks doors. Four window frames open into either side of the long walls, a few of which have no cover and others only a canvas draped across the inside. A partial view of the interior is possible from the doorways. Inside, the floors are hard-packed earth, and along the walls are wooden bunk beds. Many of the pallet beds are covered with blankets that now gather dust. Those beds have sacks or tied bundles of clothes sitting at their feet.
Unfortunately there is also a large bug which rears up, mandibles clacking to defend its territory!
It spits a long line of acid, splattering over Morgana and Shaumatiel, before diving under one of the beds.
Shaumatiel nimbly leaps aside, only getting splashed by the acid. "Argh! Get back here!" She chases after the critter, stooping down low and slicing under the bed with her long, curved blade!
Melody opens her mouth to babble out an incident about bugs in the dragon's pantry but shuts it at the slicing, scalunching, cracking gore that happens under the bed (and happily out of sight).
"That's an ankheg larva!" Vasia calls out. "Keep an eye out for the mother." Keeping her distance from the melee, she looks around watching for the much more dangerous parent.
"A bug bigger than that?" Jenica says with a raised eyebrow. "That's just ... wrong." Nevertheless, she keeps her ghostly sabres ready in case it shows its insectile face.
Morgana is caught unawares by the spitting and staggers, frantically trying to get the acid out of her eyes, whilst making a very angry spitting noise like a cat in pain.
Shaumatiel's blade cleaves through the legs of the bed and into the bug hiding beneath it. The bed groans and then collapses in a cloud of dust. The bug does not emerge from the wreckage.
Make DC17
The sun is setting as you emerge so you push on quickly to investigate the remaining buildings within the stockade. The first is a rectangular building is constructed of mud brick walls. The building has a simple door facing east, but unlike all other buildings in the colony, it lacks any windows. A heady smell of dried plants, herbs, and dried meat lingers in the air. Opening the door reveals what must have been the colonies food-store, but the building has apparently been ransacked and worse, infested with bugs. Unwilling to face that challenge right now you shut the door quickly and avoid that problem for the time beings.
The final building is a simple mud wall building which has a door facing east and one shuttered window. Above the door is a plain wooden sign that reads, “Tool House.” The contents of this building are useful but unremarkable. Hanging on the wall from hooks and nails are an assortment of tools, such as hammers, handsaws, hatchets, machetes, trowels, and the like. Various other implements, such as makeshift ladders, barrels of tar, and shovels are stacked or otherwise arrayed about the room. Absent are tools and implements that would pertain to or be exclusively used for blacksmithing.
Morgana and Vasia share a look as they come to the same conclusion - there is no way the colonists could have relocated without these supplies. In fact the second wave of colonists is relying on them just as much, so the fact that they are still here is a blessing.
A small wooden box marked 'Emergency Only' sits on one shelf. It is locked and the key cannot be found but shaking the box gently elicits the sound of clinking glassware.
There is nothing else within the stockade to investigate and night is falling swiftly. Bedding down and continuing in daylight seems like the most sensible plan.
While the others discuss where to bed down, Melody sits with the box and opens it easily. She smiles softly, her fingers finally remembering how to do this. Sherriff Hemlock would be disappointed.
Jenica gives the halfling a small hip shove. "You make that look easy, My Lovely," she says with a grin.
Vasia points out the talisman and the scattered coins in the bunks.
~~~~~
"We should sleep somewhere defensible," Vasia says looking around as the sunlight is quickly fading. "Is there room enough in the tool building? We could pull in some bedding from the bunkhouse and hole up in there. It has a sturdy door and only one window with shutters."
She looks around at the others awaiting any contradiction.
Melody sways alarmingly to the side from Jenica's hip bump, but the little halfing doesn't mind one bit, since Jenica's lovely hip is at Melody's head level.
At Venica's suggestion, she nods. "I don't take much room."
"It'll be a tight fit, but you're right about that being safest." Morgana agrees.
As they're moving bedding over to the tool house Morgana finds a wand stashed in one of the mattresses and promptly offers it to Vasia for analysis. "Maybe you can give it to Shaumatiel once you know what it does." She whispers in her lovers ear. "I intend to show you I can be better than any wand at the soonest opportunity!"
Once the bedding is set up in the tool house Morgana lies down and opens her arms for Vasia. As the only one to not sleep earlier she's exhausted and falls into slumber quickly once she has her favorite person in her arms.
It takes some willpower, but Vasia avoids immediately falling asleep. She takes comfort in listening to Morgana's heart beat beneath her and in the quiet whisperings and giggles coming from where Bunica and Melody are nested under their own blanket.
Holding out as long as possible, she finally loses the battle somewhere in the early morning hours and drops off to sleep.
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Melody falls into anything and everything Jenca is offering. A hint of desperation is laced into the little one's performance though. Whether it comes from just missing the ghost beyond her heart's ability to comprehend or that... she feels... abandoned and... even more lonely than before... no that can't be it, Melody informs the writer inside her head, that is silly...
Ignoring implications, worries, and sleep, she does her best to memorize hills and valleys and the melodious echoes as she explores them thoroughly.
The box proves to contain two vials of alchemist's fire and a neatly folded swarm suit. These will no doubt be useful when you attempt to clear out the cockroaches in the storage shed.
Your rest in the tool building is peaceful and you awake with the sunlight to your first full day in your own personal hell paradise. A quick check of the tents outside the palisade reveals that all but two tents have collapsed due to wind, rain, and lack of maintenance. The two that remain standing lean haphazardly and do not appear to have been entered for a long time based on the grass which has begun to grow around them.
There is a rudimentary field to the north, which is the direction you will have to go to return to the Peregrine and a number of small cottages which you bypassed on the way to the Levin farm in the south.
"Let's finish up with the village first." Morgana suggests, "Then head north to the meeting point. We should be done today if we're quick."
Jenica seems oblivious to the mixed emotions her companion is wrestling with as she spends the night hours Vasia can spare her completely focused on giving the halfling pleasure.
"Keep an eye out for the insect's mother," Vasia says as they make their way to the next building.
Rows of small cottages line the crossroads of two streets formed by months of regular foot traffic. The scene is silent and still. The houses are recently built, but there is no sign of life or activity. Many of these simple homes have no proper shutters, and in some cases even lack doors. Nearby, once-cut grass has begun to regrow undisturbed. Gardens and plots of farmland behind some houses have begun to grow wild as weeds threaten to choke out the vegetables and herbs.
The colonist’s houses all tell a similar story: the occupants are missing and show no sign that they packed their belongings. There are no signs of violence.
In addition to the small garden plots near the constructed houses, Talmandor’s Bounty has five large vegetable patches. Larger sections of farmland have already been surveyed and marked off just east of the settlement with plans for expansion. Two of the plots prove to have been infested with even more Anhkeg Nymphs but you dispatch them with relative ease, having fought the same creatures previously.
Of more interest is the vegetable patch that has clearly not been ravaged by the Ankheg Nymphs. Apart from being a little overgrown it seems completely undisturbed.
Razor-sharp leaves dripping in blood unravel themselves from the length of a cornstalk and lash out towards the invaders.
A sudden burst of pollen is emitted from the plant, heavily clouding the area quickly, the sickly scent overpowering everything it touches.
Shaumatiel cries out in surprise, caught off guard by the attack of the evil corn! Blinded by corn spray, she calls on fire to burn the plant and make popcorn!
Morgana likewise is caught unawares by the plant but resists the pollen cloud and surges forwards to rip at the plant as Shaumatiel lights it up.
"Vines!" Vasia calls out as she catches the movement and flings a sharp rock towards the attacking tendrils.
A moment later and she's blinded by the pollen
"That corn stalk is... oh, no that is bad." the halfling inspires her friends they just don't know why until pollen explodes around them. The halfling manages to close her eyes before the puff.
She'll run to the other side of the corn critter to help Morgana try and kill it.
With Melody's help Morgana impales the maize on her spear before Shaumatiel calls upon volcanic fire to cook the corn that Morgana has just cobbed. Having already been beaten by Vasia's telekinetic projectiles the creature collapses into a burned, skewered and surprisingly pleasant-smelling mess.
After clearing a few more vegetable patches and houses you come to the only major landmark around, an evergreen tree with spiny branches and reddish-purple, apple-shaped plums. A few plums have fallen to the ground to spoil in the heat and birds have pecked at others. Nevertheless, there are still many fruits still fit to pick and eat.
Survival DC14
Shaumatiel breathes a sigh of relief when the killer corn is quickly cooked! She eyes the plums dubiously, but her keen eyes pick out something odd near the tree's roots. "Looks like something might be buried there."
She digs through the dirt and is rewarded with a small, flat leather pouch. "Let's see what's inside!"
Morgana leans over Shaumatiel's shoulder to have a look.
"So some sort of split between the original colonists?" She says slowly. "It sounds like it got nasty and some of them tried to run. Given that we found that canoe with the hole in it I'm guessing not."
"Well, clearly something happened and some of them paid with their lives," Vasia adds. "But it doesn't look like there was a pitched battle or anything like that."
She turns to gaze over the abandoned settlement.
"Whatever happened here was much more ... subtle. Betrayal? Slavers? Maybe something more mentally intrusive?"
Melody stretched on her toes to read the parchment "We didn't find a canoe, did we? Just the boat sunk? Maybe the ones from this note got away."
"Maybe." Morgana agrees, flashing the perfect smile that has somehow survived all the trials of the last year. She doesn't want to spoil Melody's hopes, even though she knows they are extremely unlikely to come true.
"We should head north. There's nothing else here without going into those caves again."
The perfect smile makes Melody feel better.
Now that Melody feels better and the entire settlement has been scoured you collect everything you've found that may be immediately useful and head northwards towards the meeting point with the Peregrine. On the way out of town, you walk through the field to the north.
Inundating the meadow is a series of large holes dug in at an angle. Piles of dirt surround each hole. A large copse of trees grows due east, providing shelter for the crops that will one day grow here.
However, there is clearly something going on here. A few holes have small leathery eggshells in them and a number of others have tunnels connecting them. Finally, you find one that has a pitted skeleton in it and a huge armored insect that chitters angrily at you. This seems to be the momma ankheg whose babies you've been killing! It comes surging out of the hole for vengeance as you prepare your weapons.
"Falayna!" shouts Shamautiel, rushing up to attack the ankheg with her glowing sword!
Morgana circles the creature to fight with her packmate.
Vasia results to her normal schoolground tactics of flinging a rock at the creature. However, as is par for the course, the dirt-covered stone misses the beast and sails off ineffectively into nearby bushes.
Jenica, as well, seems to be performing at a suboptimal level as her sabres fail to connect with the giant insect.
Shaumatiel and Morgana take on the ankheg from each side and cut brutally through its chitinous plates. The ankheg screeches in pain and bites hard at Shaumatiel! But trying to consume the woman's blade was likely a tactically unreasonable move...
Shaumatiel whirls her blade and slices again!
Melody inspires with her magical words but can't think of anything other than an old McDonald who owned a farm.
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If Old McDonald had animals like this and farm-hands like Morgana then 'had a shop-of-horrors' might be more appropriate as Morgana stabs the creature right through its insectile eyes!
Shaumatiel cuts the creature once more and then Morgana rams her spear through its head, dropping the magical bug once and for all. The corpse in the bottom of the pit proves to have something useful - a copper ring engraved with symbols. It is a ring of protection +1, whose magic has preserved it against the ankheg's acid.
The trip northwards towards the rendezvous is immensely time-consuming and slow. The complete lack of trails or paths makes progress little more than a blind trek through the jungle until you hit on the bright idea of staying as close to the shore as possible. This makes the journey easier and by the time you reach the banks of a stream trickling from the woods you are making better time.
As you approach the stream something becomes clear - there is a body in the stream. But as you approach it leaps from the water, tentacles emerging from its mouth and head!
The zombie staggers forward, ending up close enough to vomit water all over Morgana!
Shamautiel moves to flank the tentacle zombie!
"...'tentacle zombie'..." Melody whispers in awe. "Sweets had a book about them. Protect your...! um... just be careful, please."
"Just remember that your 'um' is all mine," Jenica says with a laugh and wink over her shoulder at the halfling as she engages with the tentacled beast.
"Yes, it's a zombie of some sort," Vasia says, agreeing with Melodie as she mentally flings a stone towards the undead.
Morgana, being a simple soul, goes for the same tactic that worked well before - stabbing her spear into the creature's head!
Shaumatiel and Jenica cut the zombie down to protect Melody's 'um', but the tentacles seem to detach themselves and the creature's brain detaches and starts dragging itself away, right up until Morgana rams her spear through it and Vasia crushes it with a rock! Despite the brutal assault the thing keeps wriggling, crawling up her spear to attack the shifter!
Morgana takes a blow from the tentacles which are unpleasantly sticky.
