Sette had never seen such a thing before, but figures it's dangerous by how the others react. Shrugging, she moves forward as she digs into one of her many pouches, quickly pulling out ingredients, mashing them together in her fists and throwing the little ball.
"It's like a... metal bug or something." Sal moves toward it to inspect it, but looks surprised when the others begin to attack it. In her mind, only big things or threatening things are worth fighting. She leaves her weapon stowed on her back for the moment.
"A construct bug? Could this be Azlantian?". Coldir asks himself out loud. "It could contain valuable information! Try not to destroy it.". He calls to the others as he attempts to cover the exit.
Salaamati - Running (1 round away from creature)
Triix - Ray of Frost (miss)
Sette - bomb (hit)
Luimener -
Coldir - moving forward
Sal - moving forward
Bug - ?? rounds from window
The Hunter points at the window on the OPPOSITE side of the second floor. "Tiri!" and begins moving to block the path of the small thing as best he can.
The green beast cocks it's head as his companion tells him to guard something up there. The opening? He's guarded openings before! The big dog-thing goes to take a position in front of the opening to protect it from whatever may come.
Round two
Salaamati and Tallagor will reach the window after a double move
Coldir, Sal, and Luimener will be one move action away if they double move this round.
The metallic creature continues towards the window.
What will you do next?
Salaamati -
Triix -
Sette -
Luimener -
Coldir -
Sal -
Bug - ?? rounds from window
Salaamati moves forward and tries to trip the automaton bug.
"Stay here! Someone grapple the thing!" he says.
"Can try to slow it down, but might break it." Sette is indecisive, not having any non-destructive means of tackling the construct.
The elf tries to get to the window to block the exit, turning and trying to think of a way to capture this small thing . . ..
His companion continues guarding the other window exit.
With the automaton obviously heading for the window, not the door, Coldir dashes outside to position himself to see where the thing scurries off to if it makes it outside.
Salaamati flicks its legs out from underneath the creature, slowing it down.
Sette takes a moment to assess things and works out that the creature is already very damaged from the blast of the first bomb.
Luimener and his companion block the exits
Trixx finds a heavy cloak she could use to retrain the creature.
Coldir heads outside and tries to work out where the creature will emerge and go.
Sal you can make an attack roll with a -4 as if you are attempting to deal non lethal damage
After Salaamati knocks the weaken creature off its feet Sal pins it down with her fishing spear and holds it there long enough for Triix to get the cloak over it.
"One of our packs? Has anyone seen a simple sack anywhere?"
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You know, if we put it in some sort of transparent container, like a glass jar, and it keeps wanting to go in a certain direction, maybe we should go in that direction and see what happens.
She pauses a bit, before getting a sudden burst of realization.
I suppose we could put it in my magician's hat and tie the open end closed.
She had completely forgotten she was wearing that hat. She could have caught it in that earlier. Doh!
"I prefer catchin' the big ones, but you ever need anythin' caught, you just ask ol' Sal!" She points to herself with her free hand.
"Now like a netted fish, ya gotta be sure you grasp yer net like so..." She maneuvers the cloak to help usher the construct into Triix's hat. "We gotta hold on tight to that, it might chew or cut through the cloth."
She looks to Sette. "With all yer fancy whatnots fer makin' yer mixtures, you gotta have a jar, don't ya? Then we could take a good look at it."
Sette shakes her head sadly. "No jar that big, but Sette has a pot. Make clockwork soup, yum."
With the immediate excitement over, Luimener falls back on their original reason for coming into the building, and looks around for a bit.
After not seeing anything jump out the window, and it becoming much quieter in the building, Coldir re-enters the front door. "Good. You caught it. My pack is empty is you need it."
This main chamber seems to be intended for community meetings and possibly government and legal proceedings later on in the colonies development.
The building has not been used recently, as evidenced by a light layer of dust throughout.
The makeshift offices have simple wooden tables, chairs, and writing equipment including stationery, ink, and quills.
In the northern office you find a locked wooden box.
Other than the box there is little of interest. It appears whoever worked here always cleaned up after themselves and packed away their notebooks or took them with them when they left.
Sal waits for the brainiacs of the group to examine the creature they have caught.
Luimener brings the box out to everyone else. "Didn't see anything of note other than the little thing in the hat, and this locked box. Anybody find a key?"
Salaamati tries to open the wooden box.
“Can someone examine the creature?!?“
Sette knew next to nothing about metal bugs, but locks were generally simple mechanisms. "I don't know what it is, or how it works. I help with this lock, yes?"
"Try your mechanical skills with this bug, Sette. I imagine it h as similar mechanisms to a lock. Did we find a key?". He asks Luimener.
searching for something helpful on the bug.
"Sure, sure, Sette can take it apart, put it back together. Might not be working anymore, but Sette tries." The ratfolk doesn't actually take it apart, but spends some time carefully studying it.
Inside the locked box are multiple journals and logbooks.
The logbooks record various types of events, such as the sea journey to Ancorato, daily work details for construction and farming, a master tool inventory, records of the daily weather, and so on.
This information is mostly pedestrian in nature, but might serve as the basis of a future almanac.
All of the books date back to approximately 1 month ago, whereupon the entries become sporadic and stop altogether a week later. This is where the charter should be stored.
One logbook details daily events in the colony since landfall, and it’s the one book that contains something of particular interest.
The clockwork spy seems to have been recording conversations.
This elegant construct is the product of sophisticated craftsmanship. While looking it over Sette discovers an incredible feature, it can extract its own key from inside its body and wind itself.
Sette is able to work out how to unwind and then reprogram it.
The internal mechanism that allows the clockwork spy to wind itself can be removed, but this requires a separate Disable Device check.
This unwinding would allow you to check what its current orders are and give it new ones. However Sette realises that this is a very complex machine and was to was tricky to get this far.
The hunter assumes others want to scan the books, so he remains out of the way, watching for other movement through the village.
“Hey all! Check the logbook! Careful examination of the the colony logbook reveals that it is missing three to four pages after the last entry, as evidenced by a razor-sharp incision along the binding where the pages were carefully cut out. Whoever did this is trying to hide something!!“
"Hmm. If someone took the time to cut out those pages, I don't think they were exspectin' to disappear. I mean, why hide what ya did if there's no one around to found out anyways? Reckon the leaders of this place were distracted by their own rottenness when somethin' else popped up to take advantage..." She shakes her head. "Dumbasses."
"Hm. They knew another colony ship was on the way, right? Interesting that they mighta gone willing, but as you say... weird that they wouldn't send word nor warning."
She shrugs. "Anyways, can we get any info out of that bug? Or we just gonna keep it in the cookpot fer now? If so I'm ready to see what else we can find."
"Perhaps little metal bug can tell us what happened. Clever, clever metal bug, recording all manner of things. Can you tell us anything, little bug?"
It will take another check to get the key out which will allow you to reprogram it to follow your orders including replaying any recordings.
"Give Sette your key, little bug."
With a rattle and a click the bug begins playing
"Hey, that's not natural! What is that thing?"
"Cockroach or weta I suppose"
"It's like a... metal bug or something."
"A construct bug? Could this be Azlantian? It could contain valuable information! Try not to destroy it."
Its quickly apparent that it hadn't recorded anything before you arrived.
With Sette's fiddling they think it probably has the capacity to turn its recording function on and off.
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Triix has to smile but realises that ... well ... it's not that amusing to realise that they were recorded but no evidence of where the colonists went. Indeed the whole thing is looking .... well... rather suspicious at the moment.
After putting her hat back on, she looks at the others. So... where to now?
"How does this work? So strange. Could it be programmed to return 'home'? Does it still have a home, or is it a least e survivor of it's kind? Let's hang onto it for now. Maybe play with it after we are done exploring the village.". Coldir looks to the next building. "Let's find more pieces to this puzzle."
Sal's long ears twitch underneath her headscarf. "So... is that thing investigatin' what we're investigatin', or is it here to investigate us?"
She nods at Coldir. "Guess all we can do is keep goin'." She heads toward the nearest building of interest.
"That is a good question, indeed. Keep an eye on the little bug, don't let it get away. Little spy bug." Sette peers at the mechanical artifact with exaggerated suspicion.
"But first, let's finish exploring this place. Sette wonders what else we can find in this building, hmm?"
"We would have to know where to send it, wouldn't we?"
You all feel you've got all you are going to get from this building.
Sette is aware that devices like this often have a 'return to this location' clause in their instructions.
Next are two long, rectangular buildings 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.